1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:04,160
All right, welcome to another episode
of Crime Pace a bond he doesn't podcast.

2
00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:09,599
I'm here with my friend Hunter Martinez, who runs the Cactus Quest YouTube

3
00:00:09,679 --> 00:00:13,039
channel. And when did I first
meet you? Man? When was like

4
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:17,239
four years ago something like that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had

5
00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,399
you on the channel. Actually we
did that little zoom call right yeah.

6
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,039
Yeah, that was twenty twenty,
man, it was late twenty twenty.

7
00:00:23,199 --> 00:00:27,719
But yeah, anyway, So how
you doing. I'm doing pretty good,

8
00:00:27,719 --> 00:00:31,480
man. I just got back from
Arizona. I'm actually when you called me,

9
00:00:31,519 --> 00:00:35,399
I was working on putting together the
footage, so I was spent some

10
00:00:35,439 --> 00:00:40,240
time in the field with the cactus
biologist looking at some of the Arizona natives.

11
00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,679
A few of them are Arizona endemics
as well. So I'm good man.

12
00:00:44,759 --> 00:00:46,679
You know, I scratched that itch. I haven't been out in the

13
00:00:46,679 --> 00:00:48,799
field as much as I'd like to
see lately, so it was good to

14
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,679
get to get out there and see
plants in Arizona that I had never seen

15
00:00:52,719 --> 00:00:57,399
before. And completely different habitats too, Like the second you get south of

16
00:00:57,439 --> 00:01:03,000
Tucson and the Suaro stuff, it
really it gets very very different from you

17
00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,480
know what people kind of think of
when they think of Phoenix to some like

18
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,920
Arizona deserts. You know, yeah, well, so what's it like more

19
00:01:11,359 --> 00:01:15,920
like verdant, more green or what? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I

20
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,680
kept, you know, I had
just gotten back from a camping trip,

21
00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:25,159
like in the Mohave Wilderness along the
border with Nevada, which is like very

22
00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:30,719
dry. The largest shrubs you have
are like really short creaso bushes and stuff

23
00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,239
like that, whereas down here is
a lot more like briar and all these

24
00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:41,000
like it's just a lot thicker.
There's a lot more vegetation, grasses and

25
00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,040
trees and things like that. So
it's interesting. Yeah, it gets lush.

26
00:01:44,079 --> 00:01:46,760
Man. I remember, I'm twenty
nineteen. I remember going to uh

27
00:01:47,239 --> 00:01:49,280
spend some time. We spent like
a month now two weeks since Sonora two

28
00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:52,799
weeks or two weeks to a month
in scenario, but I forget where.

29
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,760
But but we went to some of
the sky Islands and the Souaros down there.

30
00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:59,200
I mean it was they've gotten a
bunch of mons soon rain. It

31
00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:01,239
was really really green. It was
fucking mind blowing. It was a really

32
00:02:01,319 --> 00:02:07,400
pleasant experience. But you know,
Saguaro is growing and really rather lush,

33
00:02:07,519 --> 00:02:13,439
tropical dry forest, but during the
wet season. So yeah, it's it's

34
00:02:13,479 --> 00:02:15,879
it's nice. Like I have been
out to Arizona many many times, and

35
00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:22,520
it's generally I've been there when it's
extremely dry and it's it had rained like

36
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:25,120
the two or three days prior to
me getting there, so a lot of

37
00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:29,719
the things were flowering or in bud
and just looking juiced up. I mean,

38
00:02:30,599 --> 00:02:31,759
uh, it was. It was
pretty awesome actually, Like we went

39
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:38,000
to go see a site for a
kindo Mastus intertextas, which I'm pretty sure

40
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:42,680
is an Arizona endemic. I don't
believe it grows in Mexico at all,

41
00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:46,759
and they were in flower you know. Oh nice, like really cool to

42
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:53,080
see that and just seeing all the
different habitats. Like first we looked at

43
00:02:53,759 --> 00:02:59,319
a site where you have some Echinocerius
species, and then there's Epithelantha micro maris

44
00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:05,759
and it's this one limestone outcrop,
like just one lone solitary limestone outcrop on

45
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,919
this mountain range and they're just growing
there. That's it. Oh cool,

46
00:03:09,159 --> 00:03:14,159
So you saw that, you saw
the Arizona epithylanta population, Yeah, that's

47
00:03:14,199 --> 00:03:15,960
cool. Yeah, Yeah, there
weren't a lot of plants, but you

48
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,680
know, there was there definitely were
plants, and there were plants that were

49
00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,719
producing fruit, Like we found seed
I even took a couple of the seed

50
00:03:23,759 --> 00:03:27,919
pods and smashed the seeds into some
of the cryptobiotic crust around the plants,

51
00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:30,280
you know, to kind of give
a little push in the right direction.

52
00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,080
Yeah, And I try to do
that too, especially if I'm taking seeds.

53
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,560
I always try to disperse a few
too. Yeah, So like with

54
00:03:37,719 --> 00:03:39,639
micromerias, like it'd be cool to
take the seeds, like take a seed

55
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:45,120
pod and grow the specific locality.
But because of the fact that at this

56
00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,960
site there was like I mean less
than a dozen plants, I think we

57
00:03:50,639 --> 00:03:53,159
just left that, you know.
Oh yeah, I heard that wiped out.

58
00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:58,280
I heard it. It originally was
wiped out, but then someone someone

59
00:03:58,319 --> 00:04:00,840
else told me, like, no, there's a couple populations left, like

60
00:04:00,879 --> 00:04:04,199
they gotta wiped out, like collect
Yeah, yeah, this is the check

61
00:04:04,319 --> 00:04:06,520
it was. From my understanding,
it was a bunch of check collectors who

62
00:04:06,599 --> 00:04:12,240
came in at this site in particular
that we just visited, and they took

63
00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,719
a lot of plants. There used
to be many, many more. From

64
00:04:15,199 --> 00:04:18,279
what my friend Niche was telling me
there was like fifty to sixty plants there

65
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:23,120
several years back. Now, like
I said, there's probably less than a

66
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:28,959
dozen. Surprisingly enough, though there
were two incredible crests. If they just

67
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:31,639
I guess must not have seen.
Yeah, that we're still there, which

68
00:04:31,639 --> 00:04:34,879
is pretty nice. It was gonna. I was just bringing up unrelated the

69
00:04:34,959 --> 00:04:40,120
acino mastis inter Texas because we get
that that's in West Texas too, it

70
00:04:40,199 --> 00:04:44,000
like West Texas, New Mexico and
like Chihawa. But I always forget that

71
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,959
that species exists because I don't get
ekino mastus where I live. It's you

72
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,759
know, in South Texas. It's
more like a West Texas thing. So

73
00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,079
I remember seeing it, like coming
up next to some bunch of grasses,

74
00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:55,240
and I was like, wait,
what the fuck that's that doesn't look like

75
00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:58,920
a mammalaria. It kind of looks
like maybe a Cora panta, But I

76
00:04:58,959 --> 00:05:01,920
had this cool blue epidermal tissue to
it, and so, uh, yeah,

77
00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,279
I don't know. I always forget
about that one totally related to what

78
00:05:04,319 --> 00:05:06,800
we were talking about before, but
you put it on my radar again.

79
00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:10,519
Well, I think one of the
things that trips me out about it is

80
00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:15,720
like you okay, so you know
you take like, what is it a

81
00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:23,240
kindocactus horaz Antalonius nikolai right which grows
in between Phoenix and Tucson. That like

82
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:26,160
if you know the mojave and you
know that limestone, and you like,

83
00:05:26,199 --> 00:05:29,879
you know what that all looks and
feels like it literally feels like you could

84
00:05:29,879 --> 00:05:33,399
be in the mojave right there where
those plants are growing. The limestone is

85
00:05:33,439 --> 00:05:38,439
like textured the same, has the
same and it's literally looks exactly the same.

86
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:44,560
Yeah, where the epithalantha was growing, the limestone looks very different,

87
00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,319
like it's smoother, it's like coming
off and like plates almost. It's that

88
00:05:48,399 --> 00:05:51,639
Texas stuff, that cretaceous stuff.
I don't know what causes that. If

89
00:05:51,639 --> 00:05:56,319
it's if it's just different, Yeah, I don't know. I think it's

90
00:05:56,319 --> 00:05:59,839
like a I think it's a different
chemical mixture in the limestone. Maybe the

91
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,040
maybe the mohave stuff is more akin
to dolomite. I'm not sure. Yeah.

92
00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:08,480
Well, and then what trips me
out too, especially with going and

93
00:06:08,519 --> 00:06:10,279
you see these plants, like people
will be like, well, you got

94
00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:14,120
to keep things dry in the wintertime, but at this site, I mean

95
00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,120
it had to be in the mid
to low forties, and it was windy

96
00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,399
as hell, and it had just
been pouring rain. So these things are

97
00:06:20,439 --> 00:06:26,680
all getting soaked in extremely cold weather. And it kind of like every time

98
00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:29,800
I see plants and habitat, it
makes me feel like, Okay, I

99
00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:34,399
feel a little more comfortable now in
the greenhouse pushing certain things in, you

100
00:06:34,399 --> 00:06:38,759
know, during the wintertime outside of
what is considered to be the growing season.

101
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,600
Because they take it, they take
it in their home, you know,

102
00:06:42,879 --> 00:06:45,079
that's how they live it, so
they should be able to do it

103
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:46,759
in the greenhouse the same. Yeah. But then you jump from like that

104
00:06:46,879 --> 00:06:50,759
habitat and you go down to where
Intertextas is growing, which is a bit

105
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:56,480
closer to the border, and it's
like a very like iron rich loamy kind

106
00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,279
of like silty substrate. You know, there's some rocks to it, but

107
00:07:00,319 --> 00:07:05,000
not a whole lot. And then
it's grown with grass. Yeah. Yeah,

108
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:08,920
everything's so there's so many different factors
that play though, too, I

109
00:07:08,959 --> 00:07:12,240
mean, especially when you've got a
lot of airflow like you do and in

110
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:15,639
habitat versus in a greenhouse. I
don't know, I'm still I'm still like

111
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,319
figuring things out, but it always
helps to see things in habitat like where

112
00:07:19,319 --> 00:07:23,680
I live. You know, it
blows people's minds that come down here and

113
00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,879
see see these cacti, like you
know, whether it's star cactus or payote

114
00:07:27,959 --> 00:07:32,240
growing in fine particled sandy loom like
stuff that in a pot would be just

115
00:07:32,399 --> 00:07:38,160
unfathomable, you know, like no
drainage just turns into a brick when it's

116
00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,160
dry and then stays wet for a
really long time when it gets wet,

117
00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,279
and that's what they but that's what
they grow in. I mean plant,

118
00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,439
you know, soil when it's in
the ground versus when it's in a pot

119
00:07:46,519 --> 00:07:49,000
behaves totally differently, you know,
at the rate at which it dries out,

120
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,199
et cetera. But there's I don't
know, there's just there's so much

121
00:07:51,199 --> 00:07:56,800
shit to so many different factors to
consider. I guess I'm still you know,

122
00:07:56,800 --> 00:07:59,160
I'm still learning. But yeah,
definitely the best way is to see

123
00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:03,279
things in habitat. Well, Like
I'll tell you, like every I get

124
00:08:03,279 --> 00:08:07,319
a lot of questions answered when I
go out into the desert and I look

125
00:08:07,319 --> 00:08:09,560
at plants, and then I get
a whole new list of like questions as

126
00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:15,360
well. You know, so like, we went to Koela a couple of

127
00:08:15,399 --> 00:08:22,839
years ago, and my first time
ever seeing a turbany carpus and habitat kind

128
00:08:22,839 --> 00:08:26,240
of blew my mind because we were
at about four thousand feet in a pine

129
00:08:26,279 --> 00:08:33,080
in a pine forest basically, and
we were actually looking for a particular agave

130
00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:37,799
species, and I'm like noticing wherever
there's limestone coming up, there's these little

131
00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:39,039
little cacti and I'm like getting close
to him and look at them. I'm

132
00:08:39,039 --> 00:08:43,960
like, holy how man, that's
a turbany carpus. And it's like I

133
00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:48,879
never had that context to that plant, Like I in my mind it's like

134
00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:54,960
a desert plant. And many of
the turbany Carpus do grow at the lower

135
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,559
elevations in the super ariad areas that
in fact most of them do. But

136
00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:01,639
to see one of them up like
in a pretty lush habitat, like you've

137
00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:05,320
got like orchids and all kinds of
stuff growing all over the place, yeah,

138
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,519
epiphytes and and things like that,
and then here's this urbany carpus.

139
00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:15,840
So remember when I was when I
remember like when I first got into desert

140
00:09:15,879 --> 00:09:20,600
botany was like twenty twelve, and
I just had the idea that like deserts

141
00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:24,840
just warn't they were just supposed to
be barren and rocky, like the kind

142
00:09:24,919 --> 00:09:31,919
Certainly the concept of like a dry
tropical forest was totally foreign to mein which

143
00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,759
and that's like where a cacti evolved, Like, they didn't evolve in deserts.

144
00:09:33,799 --> 00:09:37,679
They evolved in dry tropical forests where
you get a shit ton of water

145
00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:41,720
during the summer wet season, but
then during the dry the dry winters.

146
00:09:41,759 --> 00:09:46,960
It's it's that long period of dry
that started selecting for things like stem succulents

147
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:52,200
and you know whatever. But I
always assumed I was like, oh yeah,

148
00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:56,000
desert. I was like, you
know, barren fucking Phoenix hills with

149
00:09:56,159 --> 00:10:01,279
like souarros, and that's what a
desert is. Like the there pine forest,

150
00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:05,600
you know dry, you know pinion
juniper, you know, latitude and

151
00:10:05,639 --> 00:10:09,720
elevation, we're so far off my
radar. I just figured like everything was

152
00:10:09,759 --> 00:10:15,120
just fucking rocky and like just like
from the from the start, like these

153
00:10:15,159 --> 00:10:18,759
little plants we're just growing in like
surrounded by nothing, but rocks are just

154
00:10:18,759 --> 00:10:22,360
getting blasted with sunlight. Man,
It's like so much, it's so much

155
00:10:22,399 --> 00:10:24,879
more. It took me a while
to figure it out that it's so much

156
00:10:24,919 --> 00:10:28,200
more complicated than that. You know, yeah, I mean some of them

157
00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,480
definitely, do you know what I
mean? But I totally get what you're

158
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,639
saying. Like you drive, you
know, I mean, I would say

159
00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:39,840
for your average like California, and
you know, you're if you're not actually

160
00:10:39,919 --> 00:10:43,039
going out into the desert, maybe
you go to Palm Springs once a year,

161
00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,159
maybe you drive to Vegas, and
yeah, you kind of look out

162
00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:50,679
off the fifteen and that's what it
looks like. It looks like practically looks

163
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,039
like a Martian landscape. Like there's
kind of looks like there is nothing on

164
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,840
those hills, but when you get
closer to them, it is actually mind

165
00:10:56,879 --> 00:11:01,360
boggling and in fact, I think
one of the coolest things. Okay,

166
00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:05,480
so, like you're familiar with Dudley's, right, Yeah, so you have

167
00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,960
most people that like are familiar with
Dudley's kind of think of them as like

168
00:11:09,039 --> 00:11:16,559
a coastal you know, cooler weather
California and ittive succulent. But there's actually

169
00:11:16,639 --> 00:11:22,559
a species of Dudley that grows deep
in the Mojave, out straight out of

170
00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:30,679
limestone at the base of Pharaoh Cactus
like completely rugged. And this one particular

171
00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:33,759
place in the Mojave it's like my
favorite place on planet Earth. I go

172
00:11:33,799 --> 00:11:35,320
out there camping with my family a
bunch, and I go out there any

173
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:41,679
chance I get. So I've seen
these plants in every single possible season,

174
00:11:41,799 --> 00:11:48,000
like in every stage of you know, in every stage of the plant basically,

175
00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:52,480
and this last time I went out
there, these things were juiced up.

176
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,200
I mean some of the rosettes were
the size of dinner plates. Oh

177
00:11:56,399 --> 00:12:01,120
you're talking about Yeah, yeah,
I've never seen now, I've never seen

178
00:12:01,159 --> 00:12:03,919
them that big, but I've certainly
seen them, you know in the granite

179
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,519
mountains. I've only ever seen them
really growing on granite, but you've seen

180
00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:09,679
them on limestone too, yeah,
oh yeah yeah. And so what blows

181
00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:13,919
my mind though, is like you'll
go out there, you know, you

182
00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:16,960
go out there like three months from
now, and you go to that exact

183
00:12:16,039 --> 00:12:20,279
same spot and you take pictures of
exactly where you took that beautiful picture of

184
00:12:20,279 --> 00:12:26,159
that beautiful rosette, and you're not
going to see anything. At best,

185
00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:30,440
it'll look like there's a dead dud
ley of the m Yeah. So they

186
00:12:30,519 --> 00:12:33,559
just dive back to a root or
stem. Yeah, pretty much pretty much,

187
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,480
and as soon as they get water, it's like, I think it

188
00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:39,279
kind of goes to show you like
a lot of people focus in terms of

189
00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:43,440
horticulture and with collectors and stuff like
that, a lot of people are hyper

190
00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:48,799
focused on the plant above ground,
which is of course the thing that is

191
00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:54,120
attractive to us. But really like
a lot of the magic of that plant

192
00:12:54,279 --> 00:12:58,320
is what's going on below the surface, Like the fact that these things can

193
00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,600
can do that and whatever they've got
down there keep them going and then they

194
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,480
can just regenerate from that. I
mean that resilience, I think is one

195
00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:13,080
of the things that really locked me
in with succulents in general. So on

196
00:13:13,159 --> 00:13:16,279
that note, let's talk about So
tell everybody how you got into this and

197
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:18,320
what you do and you know,
because man, I remember when I first

198
00:13:18,399 --> 00:13:22,320
met you, like if that was
I think it was before the YouTube channel

199
00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,000
really took off. And now you're
like you're going out the habit that you

200
00:13:24,039 --> 00:13:28,120
go to Mexico a shit ton,
You're filming all kinds of cool plants.

201
00:13:28,159 --> 00:13:33,000
I mean, plants like I've never
even seen before, like for Carrio PROPUSSII

202
00:13:33,159 --> 00:13:35,799
and all these cool I mean,
how did you how did you get into

203
00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,720
all this stuff. What started it? So, I mean it kind of

204
00:13:39,759 --> 00:13:48,519
like all began just before before the
quarantine, so twenty twenty, you know,

205
00:13:48,639 --> 00:13:54,039
I had basically I was. I
was a sales rep for a window

206
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:56,960
and door manufacturer, and I worked
like a dog. I made good money,

207
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,600
you know, but like I worked
like a dog days a week,

208
00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:05,559
usually tired on Sunday and don't want
to do anything. But I started going

209
00:14:05,879 --> 00:14:09,639
in between appointments. I started going
to nurseries, but the nurseries and thrift

210
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:15,480
stores trying to found like cool t
shirts or cool plants. And my mom

211
00:14:15,519 --> 00:14:18,159
always had a patio with plants on
them, and it was mostly succulents.

212
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:20,399
I didn't know anything about them at
the time, you know. I was

213
00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:22,440
just like a high school cow.
Used to like the smoke weed out there

214
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:26,440
because it felt good. The energy
on the patio was good, you know.

215
00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:30,240
Yeah, So I started buying plants
for myself, and I think initially

216
00:14:30,279 --> 00:14:31,480
I tried to do orchids, and
I was like, that mean, you

217
00:14:31,519 --> 00:14:35,600
know, the dude watering is orchids
with ice cubes. I couldn't do it.

218
00:14:35,799 --> 00:14:39,000
And somebody suggested that I try succulents
because they were a bit easier,

219
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:45,879
and once I started going to nurseries
and seeing them. I mean initially I

220
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:50,440
was being drawn in by things like
at Chavaria's and grabbedo pedlums and like different

221
00:14:50,519 --> 00:14:54,960
messms, tight knopsis and like the
baby toes, all these different things that

222
00:14:54,039 --> 00:14:58,600
I looked at and thought that's trippy, like that is that really a plant?

223
00:14:58,639 --> 00:15:01,879
Like it's so crazy. So I
was buying things on a trippiness factor.

224
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,480
I started to get kind of a
little disenchanted with the work I was

225
00:15:07,559 --> 00:15:13,720
doing, and I actually ended up
going Now by this point, I have

226
00:15:13,799 --> 00:15:16,399
a small collection of plants, so
I got some plants around the house.

227
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:18,120
I've got a little table on the
back patio with a bunch of cactus.

228
00:15:18,639 --> 00:15:22,279
Everything's the cactus to me. So
I really didn't know. Like I had

229
00:15:22,279 --> 00:15:26,120
things that were euphobia's and I just
thought they were really cools. What's this

230
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,039
cactus? Now? What is this? Tell me what this is? Well?

231
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:31,679
I was like, can I remember
I bought this one? And I

232
00:15:31,679 --> 00:15:33,200
was like, gosh, it looks
like a tiger stripes, like it's such

233
00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:37,000
a wild cactus. And it turns
out it's not a not a cactus at

234
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,639
all, you know what I mean? But what the turning point for me

235
00:15:39,759 --> 00:15:45,759
really was is I had gone.
I went, and I did a ayahuasca

236
00:15:45,759 --> 00:15:50,960
ceremony. I did like a two
day weekend ayahuasca ceremony, and I had

237
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:56,960
I had like three or four days
in between the ceremony and when I had

238
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,600
to go back to work. And
how'd you do They were like travel they

239
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,080
were like doing a traveling tour or
something or what or did you go to

240
00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:07,879
Peru? Or how'd you do it? No? No, it was down

241
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:11,639
like in the Vista area actually,
So there's there's all kinds of groups of

242
00:16:11,679 --> 00:16:18,440
people doing that stuff around Los Angeles
and southern California. But the experience itself,

243
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:19,519
which I'm not going to go on
a tangent about that, but it

244
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:25,399
was an extremely powerful experience for me, and I spent the next few days

245
00:16:25,399 --> 00:16:29,919
prior to going back to work,
repotting my plants and tending to my my

246
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,799
garden basically. And I had this
one in particular point as a Mammalaria grisillis

247
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,679
for Jillis. I think I probably
got it like Trader Joe's or something like

248
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:41,279
that. And prior to the ceremony, I had kind of been in a

249
00:16:41,279 --> 00:16:45,440
little bit of a slump. I
was recovering from a knee surgery, so

250
00:16:45,039 --> 00:16:48,840
I was not really as active as
I used to be, which was bumming

251
00:16:48,879 --> 00:16:55,600
me out. And uh, I
had this plan been knocked over by squirrels

252
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:57,000
in my front yard and was sitting
there for a couple of months, and

253
00:16:57,039 --> 00:16:59,480
my wife would be like, what
are you going to fix that? When

254
00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:00,360
are you gonna rep And I'm like, I get to it, but I

255
00:17:00,399 --> 00:17:04,240
was just like, I just wasn't. I wasn't in the headspace for it

256
00:17:04,279 --> 00:17:07,359
at the time. And after that
ceremony, when I went to go get

257
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:14,119
that plant and repot it, it
had been partially buried with some of the

258
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,920
roots exposed, just sitting in my
front yard for months. And after I

259
00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:19,000
dusted it off and cleaned it,
I realized, Man, this thing is

260
00:17:19,039 --> 00:17:26,559
actually grown significantly since it got knocked
over. And that resilience. I'd mentioned

261
00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:33,240
it before, but that resilience,
and I mean, there's something to me

262
00:17:33,319 --> 00:17:37,839
that's very spiritual about it. I
think the fact that this plant could get

263
00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:42,480
like just left for dead basically,
and not give a fuck really and just

264
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:48,839
keep going and thriving no matter what
in the face of adversity. And I

265
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,200
just it really struck me. And
it was at that moment that I was

266
00:17:52,279 --> 00:17:57,480
like, man, it's it's cactus. And I sort of stopped stopped collecting

267
00:17:57,519 --> 00:18:02,680
soft succulents, and you know,
I started reading books about cacti, and

268
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,640
actually, so it's kind of a
funny story. As I started to get

269
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:08,720
more and more into it, I
was already thinking of doing a YouTube channel,

270
00:18:11,039 --> 00:18:14,759
and I was like, really really
wanted to go see them in habitat

271
00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:18,559
and I thought, man, it
would be so cool to go dig one

272
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:21,640
up and like bring home some of
the dirt and some of the rocks from

273
00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:23,160
where it grows and plant it and
see if I could, you know,

274
00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:27,839
keep it growing. And so I
googled where can I go dig up cactus

275
00:18:27,839 --> 00:18:33,359
in California and quickly realize that you
cannot do that. So I was a

276
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:37,400
little bummed. But so different from
Texas, where it's like, hey,

277
00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:41,759
he's dig up everything, go ahead, Yeah for real? Right, But

278
00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:45,160
yeah, that's kind of like the
genesis for me, and I decided that

279
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,880
I was going to start the YouTube
channel. You know, it took me

280
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,119
a minute to like figure out what
I was going to call it, but

281
00:18:52,279 --> 00:18:56,119
Cactus Quest is what it's called.
And that's sort of like a double entendre,

282
00:18:56,359 --> 00:18:57,960
you know, because it's what I'm
on, you know, when I

283
00:18:59,039 --> 00:19:02,920
go and I go to Mexico or
wherever, I'm going on a quest for

284
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,160
cactus. And then it's also sort
of a nod to what I feel is

285
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:12,000
what birth this whole thing, which
is that ceremony, So it's sort of

286
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:18,119
a nod to like the vision quest. And that's basically from there I started

287
00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:22,200
it. The quarantine had not started, so I was still working, and

288
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,160
in my mind, I was like, well, I'm just going to do

289
00:19:25,279 --> 00:19:29,200
this. You know, in my
spare time, I get to go see

290
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,599
a lot of really cool plants here
in southern California. I hadn't even touched

291
00:19:32,599 --> 00:19:34,640
the tip of the iceberg yet.
This is just like going to nurseries all

292
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:38,480
around town and stuff. And I
thought that would be cool enough. And

293
00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,240
I remember telling my wife, I'm
like, man, if I could just

294
00:19:41,279 --> 00:19:42,839
get paid for like six months to
not work, like, I think I

295
00:19:42,839 --> 00:19:47,279
could actually turn this into a thing
that I don't have to go back to

296
00:19:47,319 --> 00:19:52,039
work. And the next thing,
you know, the pandemic hit and I

297
00:19:52,079 --> 00:19:55,559
got paid for like a year to
not work. Yeah. Yeah, was

298
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:59,000
that got a lot of people into
plants. Man, that whole period,

299
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:03,480
I think just being stuck inside and
then having everything slow down and having to

300
00:20:03,519 --> 00:20:06,960
realize, like, ah, fuck, like that this ship feels good,

301
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,319
you know, like being around plants
feels good, and kind of taking time

302
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:14,200
to pay attention to these things feels
good. And and a lot of people

303
00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:17,079
stuck with that after the you know, after things quote unquote went back to

304
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:21,960
normal into a recession and you know, political division and all the other normal

305
00:20:22,039 --> 00:20:25,960
I put in quotes, you know, the fucking whatever, the gradual decline

306
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,400
of the American empire, right,
but yeah, yeah, I mean so

307
00:20:30,599 --> 00:20:33,680
for me, it was like,
okay, all right, I'm gonna you

308
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:37,160
know, I'm gonna start doing this. And I wanted to, you couldn't.

309
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:44,079
I literally lived at the foothills in
Altadena, like walking distance from hiking

310
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:47,519
trails, except all the hiking trails
had tape, and you know, if

311
00:20:47,559 --> 00:20:49,519
you get caught hiking, it's a
five thousand dollars fine, Like you really

312
00:20:49,559 --> 00:20:52,599
wanted to stay in your house,
you know, that's nuts mean, And

313
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:57,160
I just decided, like there's blm
land where there's nobody there to say anything,

314
00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:02,240
So I'm just gonna start driving out
and just pulling over and seeing what's

315
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:07,359
there. And that's uh, that's
sort of where it started for me.

316
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,119
And I think going out into the
desert, like actually going and saying I'm

317
00:21:11,279 --> 00:21:15,799
setting out to find this plant,
uh, and then finding it. The

318
00:21:15,839 --> 00:21:19,200
first plant I ever did that with
was agave utai insis. Yeah, And

319
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,079
I didn't I didn't ask anybody,
I didn't have a locality, I didn't

320
00:21:22,079 --> 00:21:26,599
have any GPS coordinates, but I
read about it and I looked and saw

321
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,359
like it grows around here, grows
at this elevation. Out of this,

322
00:21:30,599 --> 00:21:34,000
I think I can find it,
you know, And I drive in ultimus

323
00:21:34,039 --> 00:21:37,119
that I kind of ended up getting
to a lot of places where I'm like,

324
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:38,480
yeah, it's probably there, but
I just can't make this road work,

325
00:21:38,519 --> 00:21:41,880
you know. And then at the
at the very end of the day,

326
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,680
like I was coming back and I
decided to just hop off one last

327
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,480
time and drove way into the desert
and I'm looking at this ridgeline and I

328
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:56,599
saw these giant, giant clumps of
I guess now it's Homolocephala polycephalos, yeah,

329
00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:00,000
but econocactus. And so I was
like, all right, I'm gonna

330
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,759
up and photograph these like it's almost
sunset beautiful, you know, beautiful shots.

331
00:22:03,799 --> 00:22:07,079
And as I get close to them, I look a little further and

332
00:22:07,079 --> 00:22:11,240
I see all these spikes, all
these inflorescent spikes, And man, the

333
00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:15,000
feeling that I got right because I
knew it had to be them, you

334
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:18,599
know what I mean. And I
got so fucking hyped up. I mean,

335
00:22:18,759 --> 00:22:21,240
like there's video of it, I
believe on my channel. I'm just

336
00:22:21,319 --> 00:22:23,880
like like a just a like giddy
little kid, you know what I mean.

337
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:30,160
Yeah, yeah, Like I had
given up on finding them, and

338
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:34,839
here they are, and uh,
the dopamine rush when people experience that,

339
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:41,480
I think it's it's quickly addictive,
you know. It seems to be anybody,

340
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:47,000
uh, anybody that I've taken out
to go see plants and habitat.

341
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:52,119
It's sort of like that was like
their gateway experience. Like my buddy Kevin

342
00:22:52,599 --> 00:22:56,240
Crazy for Cactus on Instagram. Yeah, yeah, I think I think they're

343
00:22:56,240 --> 00:23:00,279
either getting back today or tomorrow or
they're still in Bah. Yeah. And

344
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,680
like that dude, you know,
like I took him to do a video.

345
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:07,319
He had never been out to the
desert. I took him to like

346
00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:11,160
outside of Joshua Tree. There's a
hike, it's like the twenty nine Palms

347
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:12,920
Canyon hike or something like that,
and we did that. There's all kinds

348
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:18,359
of stuff growing on that trail,
like Escobaria Alverson, I uh, you

349
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,559
got Pharaoh cactus. I think there's
mammalarius. But there's all kinds of cool

350
00:23:22,559 --> 00:23:25,920
stuff. And his mind was blown
and that's it. That dude has been

351
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:27,920
on so many trips since then,
it's not even funny. Yeah. Yeah,

352
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:32,200
Which it was one of his lawns
that we killed for the UH.

353
00:23:32,279 --> 00:23:33,680
That's right, for the UH.
Or his law was one of the ones

354
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,400
we killed for the first season,
to kill your lawnyea. I remember when

355
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,119
I first met him, he's like
just getting into this stuff. And now

356
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:41,680
he's yeah, and now he's like
all over the fucking place. He's going

357
00:23:41,759 --> 00:23:45,359
into you know, different habits,
all the all the shit. I see

358
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,160
him posting him like, God,
that's awesome. It's so cool to see

359
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,640
people when they first get into it
and then watch where it goes and how

360
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,519
it spreads, you know, and
it's I think it's one of the few.

361
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:57,799
I mean, there's a lot of
good things, there's a lot more

362
00:23:57,799 --> 00:24:00,119
bad that comes out of social media. But I think it's it's one of

363
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:03,759
the good things that really comes out
of social media is you know, getting

364
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:08,400
getting people exposed to this world and
also getting you know, people connected to

365
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,920
each other. Well. I think
one of the things for me that I

366
00:24:12,039 --> 00:24:19,519
find like really like it draws me
in is that you know everything going on

367
00:24:19,519 --> 00:24:23,359
in the world right now. It's
uh, you know, you open up

368
00:24:25,279 --> 00:24:26,920
social media to go see what's going
on in the plant world and you might

369
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,920
see some of the glorious ship you
know you ever saw on accident before you

370
00:24:32,039 --> 00:24:33,039
got to the cactus pictures, you
know what I mean. And it's like

371
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:40,200
between that and traffic and then all
the all the chaos of modern life,

372
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,039
there's it feels unnatural. I mean
to me, it kind of feels like

373
00:24:45,039 --> 00:24:47,799
the way we live is a little
bit unnatural. And when you when you

374
00:24:47,839 --> 00:24:55,880
go out, the difference in mindset, like it's very easy to get kind

375
00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:00,079
of in a in a dark headspace
if you're just you know, trapped in

376
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:06,720
the rigamarow of of everyday life and
to have that kind of punctuated with these

377
00:25:06,759 --> 00:25:11,119
moments of going out into nature.
And what I find is that I I

378
00:25:11,519 --> 00:25:18,400
kind of am awestruck oftentimes, and
every time that I like learn a little

379
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:23,599
bit more about these places, that
just immediately calmed me down, Like getting

380
00:25:23,599 --> 00:25:26,960
out there. The second I don't
see billboards, I immediately start feeling better,

381
00:25:27,279 --> 00:25:30,599
you know what I mean. Yeah, it's a it's a I mean,

382
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,680
it's a fucking immediate mental health boost, that's what's I mean the same

383
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,680
thing with you know, like just
having like a native garden, native plant

384
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:38,319
guard in your front yard. I
mean, that's that's what That's what my

385
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,000
yard is like, Like it fills
me with fucking joy every day. I

386
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,279
mean, it's it's beyond filming with
joy. It like makes me feel complete,

387
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,839
you know, Like it's such a
fucking yeah, it's it's it's such

388
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,200
an it's so important. I know
it does. I know it could do

389
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,440
that for other people too. That's
why I push it all all this shit

390
00:25:55,559 --> 00:25:57,119
so hard. I'm like, just
listen. I might be an asshole,

391
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:02,039
I might have a crusty exterior,
but just trust me on this one thing,

392
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:04,960
you know, and it'll it'll it'll
fucking calm you down. It'll be

393
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,960
like a cocktail that's not gonna poison
your liver, you know. And I

394
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,920
I it bums me on too,
because I see people on social media,

395
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,480
especially kids, are like, oh, the world's so fucked up, blah

396
00:26:15,519 --> 00:26:18,279
blah, and it's you know,
the world's fucked up. But we've always

397
00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:22,559
been fucked up as a species.
We've always the history is filled with hundreds

398
00:26:22,599 --> 00:26:27,000
and thousands of fucking mass graves in
you know, our fucking primate neurochemistry,

399
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,200
our territorial pissings. Now the only
thing it's different is we're eight billions strong

400
00:26:32,279 --> 00:26:37,079
instead of you know, two hundred
and fifty million. But but you know,

401
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,240
whatever, it's it's always been fucked
up. It's hopefully it'll get better

402
00:26:40,279 --> 00:26:44,240
at some point. I think things
slowly get better. You know, Murder

403
00:26:44,319 --> 00:26:48,039
rates per capita, at least in
terms of human population seem to be down.

404
00:26:48,079 --> 00:26:49,640
I mean, they're not where we'd
like him to be, but it's

405
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,960
still there's like we're we'rend like the
cost of World War three, but still,

406
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,960
you know, it's it's really easy
to get in this mindset where like

407
00:26:56,079 --> 00:27:00,880
everything is so fucked But I think
when you this, you know, being

408
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,920
into this stuff and certainly having an
awareness of the geologic timescale, it it

409
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:07,880
zooms your ass out of it like
it takes you out and it you know,

410
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,960
it zooms you out from this this
the myopia of the human world of

411
00:27:12,039 --> 00:27:17,240
like only focusing on things that that
affect people, you know, and like

412
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:19,759
just being like realizing there's like this
whole other world, you know, composed

413
00:27:19,759 --> 00:27:26,000
of millions of other species that are
all interwoven and connected to each other.

414
00:27:26,039 --> 00:27:30,400
It's it's such a fucking calming effect
and just philosophically and just emotionally too,

415
00:27:30,519 --> 00:27:37,079
you know. Well, it's like
that that context it makes me like looking

416
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:41,680
at the world and feeling a sense
of wonder, the same world that I

417
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:45,759
could look at and just be like, I can't believe I'm trapped in this

418
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:48,839
hell, you know what I mean. Yeah, it's like it that that

419
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:55,039
ability to be able to like really
be fascinated and wooed by Mother Nature and

420
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:59,079
to like kind of fall in love
with the planet you live on, Like

421
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,359
I mean, that was one of
the things I was at a at a

422
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,000
nursery, one of the one of
the times first time I went to like

423
00:28:06,039 --> 00:28:08,720
a cactus nursery and they had a
copia pola that they showed me and I

424
00:28:10,319 --> 00:28:12,200
could not believe this thing I've never
seen anything like it. It was a

425
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:17,839
copiapoamalba. I've never seen anything like
it. This thing is like white with

426
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,839
these black spines, this big globular
fucking thing. And I'm like sitting there,

427
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,400
going, wait a minute, you're
telling me that there's a place on

428
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,599
earth where I could go hiking and
I would see that growing there? Is

429
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,440
that is that the species? Is
that the one that looks like hell razor?

430
00:28:34,279 --> 00:28:38,759
Yeah? Yeah? And I mean
and so it's I think that like

431
00:28:38,799 --> 00:28:41,720
you go out there and you just
look at all this, and I mean

432
00:28:41,759 --> 00:28:45,400
I find myself just looking at things
and going, oh, oh my gosh,

433
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,880
like, look at how beautiful this
is. And I need that.

434
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,039
I need to look at the world
and think, wow, this is a

435
00:28:52,039 --> 00:28:56,279
beautiful place. I'm so lucky to
be here because it's easy. And I

436
00:28:56,359 --> 00:29:00,279
always tell people, you know,
it's like my three year old and like

437
00:29:00,319 --> 00:29:03,400
she's so excited. She's so fucking
excited to tell me about a cool bug

438
00:29:03,519 --> 00:29:06,559
she saw, and yeah and and
all this, and it's like, man,

439
00:29:06,599 --> 00:29:08,839
if like, I hope she never
loses that, because I never did.

440
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,039
Like it got it definitely got smothered. That little kid inside me got

441
00:29:12,039 --> 00:29:15,599
smothered for a little bit, but
like it's still very much there, and

442
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:19,799
that is that's like now it's there
more than it was almost when I was

443
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,799
that age, you know, when
I was four or five or fucking eight

444
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,039
whatever. Like now it's like,
fuck, what am I gonna do to

445
00:29:27,079 --> 00:29:30,319
that? I don't know. I
feel like I'm gonna go plant a native

446
00:29:30,359 --> 00:29:33,039
plant garden in my friend Hector's yard, because you know, he fucking said

447
00:29:33,039 --> 00:29:36,279
he wanted one. I got some
time, I got some plants. Let's

448
00:29:36,279 --> 00:29:38,119
go do a Let's go kill his
fucking lawn and plants. And you know

449
00:29:38,359 --> 00:29:41,799
what am I gonna do? And
it's just, you know, it's that

450
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,599
little that little kids still there.
And I think, you know, that's

451
00:29:45,599 --> 00:29:49,160
why the world is dying. It's
because so many people have let that little

452
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:53,240
kid, you know, get get
the spirit of that little kid gets smothered

453
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:56,480
in them and they're like, oh, and I get a lot of people

454
00:29:56,519 --> 00:29:59,839
have to, but I think a
lot of people forget how to be in

455
00:30:00,039 --> 00:30:02,759
love with the world, you know, they forget how to have that sense

456
00:30:02,799 --> 00:30:06,240
of wonder and fascination and excitement about
it. And that's why it's so cool

457
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:10,920
to see people, you know,
just fucking geek out on plants like you

458
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,680
know, like you did when you
saw a guy at eight as is the

459
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,559
first time. Oh yeah, that
was dude. I mean the sun was

460
00:30:17,599 --> 00:30:19,119
going down. I took as many
pictures as I could and looked at as

461
00:30:19,119 --> 00:30:22,480
many plants as I could, but
I was like, dude, I gotta

462
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,799
I'm coming back here tomorrow morning.
I literally drove home and woke up at

463
00:30:26,839 --> 00:30:30,920
like four am and was back there
practically at sunrise the next day, and

464
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,960
then scoured like ridge after ridge.
I mean the last time I went out

465
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,559
there by myself, I was like, I finished the day, got in

466
00:30:37,599 --> 00:30:38,519
the car, and I just for
shits and giggles. I was like,

467
00:30:38,519 --> 00:30:42,240
how far did I go today?
Twelve miles? Twelve mile? You know,

468
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,920
you'd be really hard to get me
to go for twelve mile walk around

469
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,759
mustars, right, yeah, I
know we're you gonna look at like the

470
00:30:48,759 --> 00:30:52,680
billboards, like the fucking the shit, the human shit on the corner,

471
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,480
the fucking you know, the bank
landscaping. It's like, no, it's

472
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,119
the same thing, like the you
know, the landscape that humans build in

473
00:31:00,119 --> 00:31:03,720
this society, given our value system
that we have right now, are not

474
00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:07,279
pretty but nature even like that word
nature. Always say, I don't like

475
00:31:07,279 --> 00:31:10,960
the word nature. It's just the
real world. The real world, the

476
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,480
outside of humans is so so intoxicating. But that's you know, on the

477
00:31:14,519 --> 00:31:15,839
same hand, like that's what drives
me. That's about Texas. It's like,

478
00:31:17,119 --> 00:31:18,240
you guys have so much public land
out there. When I lived in

479
00:31:18,279 --> 00:31:22,240
California, when I was doing desert
botany, I basically learned half of what

480
00:31:22,279 --> 00:31:25,599
I know about botany in the deserts, you know, and there was public

481
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,519
land everywhere. And there's just not
that much public land here. So to

482
00:31:27,559 --> 00:31:32,920
get people access to it, you
know, like most most Texas botany is

483
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,839
just cruising the roads and looking for
the strip the margin between the road and

484
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,799
the fence line. And then you
know, I know, people like herper

485
00:31:40,839 --> 00:31:44,440
friends of mine will trespass all the
time and shit and whatever. It doesn't

486
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,240
you know, they don't. They
just kind of I'm looking for snakes.

487
00:31:47,279 --> 00:31:51,279
They normally it's not a big deal, but it's yeah, it's you know,

488
00:31:51,319 --> 00:31:52,920
it's definitely having the public land thing. That's why I like man.

489
00:31:53,279 --> 00:31:56,319
I think I think a lot of
people out west, you know, they

490
00:31:56,640 --> 00:32:00,480
don't take it for granted. They
certainly appreciate the abundance of public land.

491
00:32:01,279 --> 00:32:04,359
Oh I know, I do,
man, I know, I do.

492
00:32:05,079 --> 00:32:07,160
Yeah, I mean the thought of
not being able to hike it was kind

493
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:07,920
of like that, you know.
When we were in Oahaka, it was

494
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:15,559
sort of like that, whereas like
compared to like Baja or Kohela or San

495
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:16,920
Luis put A Sea or any of
those other states that I've been to,

496
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,920
those you just kind of like stop
wherever you want, just you know,

497
00:32:22,319 --> 00:32:28,079
just go exploring and looking at stuff. In Whaka, like everything is private.

498
00:32:28,279 --> 00:32:31,680
Every somebody owns every little section of
land pretty much, and so we

499
00:32:31,759 --> 00:32:35,759
had to like get permission. Every
time we wanted to go somewhere, you

500
00:32:35,799 --> 00:32:38,400
had to get permission. We'd go
to the municipal office, this is where

501
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:42,039
we want to get to, and
they'd say, okay, well this that

502
00:32:42,079 --> 00:32:44,599
you're going to have to cross this
guy's land and this guy's land, so

503
00:32:44,839 --> 00:32:46,119
you know, we'll have to get
permission from them. You know. It's

504
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,559
like a few pace those to everybody
you talk to. Oh yeah, yeah,

505
00:32:50,599 --> 00:32:54,359
the fucking diplomacy, yeah, and
you kinda fucking yeah, man,

506
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:58,079
It's that's definitely what it's like.
And it's like that in Texas too.

507
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,960
I mean you know, you could
you got to talk to people. You

508
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,839
have to like build connections. I
mean, I've lived there for three years

509
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:07,559
now, so I've got, you
know, a significant amount of connections where

510
00:33:07,559 --> 00:33:09,759
I could talk to people to get
on their landstill, but it's it's really

511
00:33:09,799 --> 00:33:13,799
frustrating. It's kind of like the
whole concept is kind of whack. But

512
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:15,759
whatever, it's just what you're what
you're working with. You know, it's

513
00:33:15,799 --> 00:33:22,119
like this this religion of private property. But but yeah, I mean I

514
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:25,000
guess it's just you know, it's
just something to get used to. But

515
00:33:25,039 --> 00:33:29,640
when you so, when you so
when you're out in these places, I

516
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,160
mean, so you you started with
kind of like a narrow focus on a

517
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,119
few species, and then it just
slowly got broadened. Like you'd be out

518
00:33:36,119 --> 00:33:38,200
in these places and you'd see,
oh, what's this thing growing? How

519
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,559
like when did you get into Dudley's
When did you get into all these other

520
00:33:40,799 --> 00:33:44,960
these other groups of plants? And
do you see it continuing to expand or

521
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:52,640
what? Yeah? Yeah, I
do. I mean pretty much each time

522
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,359
I go, I mean, every
time I learn about something new, I'm

523
00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:00,599
then into it. Like uh,
if I see a plant in habitat like

524
00:34:01,079 --> 00:34:06,200
typically, especially if I actually see
it in person and habitat I'm it's you

525
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,039
know, there's a there's a little
love thing that starts there like and Dudley

526
00:34:09,119 --> 00:34:13,039
is actually, you know, I
don't have like a time I think I

527
00:34:13,079 --> 00:34:15,920
have to Dudley as like, I
have one that somebody gifted me and then

528
00:34:15,119 --> 00:34:19,760
another one that I had picked up
somewhere along the line. I don't grow

529
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:24,920
a lot of them, but I
love going to see them, and yeah,

530
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:30,400
it it's it started like it kind
of started with just not really having

531
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:35,599
any focus whatsoever, and then I
kind of like really got hyper focused on

532
00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:43,000
Copia poa and ariocarpus. It's a
little cost prohibitive to collect copiapoa these days

533
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,199
for me anyway, you know,
with three kids, So I uh,

534
00:34:46,679 --> 00:34:52,119
it just started branching out, like
you start looking at oh, what's what's

535
00:34:52,119 --> 00:34:53,400
turbanitycarpus? I never heard of that, And then you start looking at these

536
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,760
things You're like, whoa, these
are cool as hell, you know,

537
00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:01,280
and then it just I mean anything
that grows with anything that I like,

538
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:05,639
I end up starting to get into. Yeah, really with Kopia poe,

539
00:35:05,639 --> 00:35:08,159
as you said, it's expensive,
they're just because they're expensive among like collector,

540
00:35:08,519 --> 00:35:13,639
like the horticultural community or what.
Yeah, yeah, I mean,

541
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:15,519
you know, it's they are slow
growth. You know, there are certain

542
00:35:15,559 --> 00:35:22,000
plants that are I hate the word
but rare in cultivation. And some things

543
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,719
are actually really rare in cultivation,
like and you if you have them in

544
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:30,079
your collection and grow them, you'll
kind of start to understand why. Like

545
00:35:31,119 --> 00:35:36,440
Mammalaria crucidge era, one of my
favorite mammalarias. I was lucky enough to

546
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,400
get to see it growing out of
the gypsum cliffs in Wahaka. I've got

547
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:45,480
two plants and I pollinate them and
they produce fruit, and those fruit never

548
00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:50,320
have seeds, and so it's like, and this is now I think my

549
00:35:50,559 --> 00:35:52,480
problem, probably my third year now, trying to make seed on them and

550
00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:55,880
having no success and you're outcrossing them
and everything too. Or do you just

551
00:35:55,920 --> 00:36:00,840
have the one genetic individual or what? No? I have two two,

552
00:36:00,159 --> 00:36:06,519
you know, seed grown plants,
so completely different genetics. And the thing

553
00:36:06,599 --> 00:36:08,760
is is that everybody seems to have
that issue, Like everybody I know that

554
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:15,280
has Crucidgera in their collection has that
issue, which is why you can't really

555
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:20,239
find crucidgerra for sale, and if
you can, it's typically going to be

556
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:27,199
relatively expensive because they don't really make
a lot of seed and they're slow as

557
00:36:27,199 --> 00:36:31,480
a glacier, so like something,
and copiapoa is in that same ballpark,

558
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:38,280
particularly like Sinneria, the whole sceneria
complex really, but really Sinneria and Columna

559
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:45,880
alba. They're slow. They are
super slow. And you know there's some

560
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:50,280
people grow things where they push them
and they heavily fertilize, but those plants,

561
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,800
you know, those plants will grow
faster, but they won't really look

562
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,920
like what they're supposed to look like. And so if you want them to

563
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,639
look like copiapoa, you know,
you grow them, you don't push them.

564
00:37:02,079 --> 00:37:05,400
And I mean you're not going to
get a flowering plant. Takes about

565
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,280
a decade before one of those leaving
flower. If you're lucky, it might

566
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,960
be a little longer too. You
know. Yeah, I've never even I've

567
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,639
never even bothered. I think I
bought like a copy of I mean,

568
00:37:13,679 --> 00:37:16,119
first off, I only grow what's
going to be easy for me, uh,

569
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:19,880
given wherever I live at the time, and stuff I can put in

570
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:22,079
the ground. And if I'll grow
stuff that that is a native there.

571
00:37:22,119 --> 00:37:24,760
It's mostly just to be able to
study it, like to get good macro

572
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,960
shots. If it's flower morphology,
you're trying, you know, study,

573
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,760
it's study it's flowers, like the
same way like a university greenhouse would keep

574
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:37,320
specimens of like an amberella or a
fucking well witchy or something. But but

575
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:39,760
I had I had like two Copia
poe once. They weren't the rare ones.

576
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,679
I bought them at like some fucking
cactus nursery in Berkeley when I lived

577
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,000
up there. But but it's I
think the thing about that that's that's so

578
00:37:46,199 --> 00:37:50,519
amazing too, is that it's not
that's from a cold desert, like not

579
00:37:50,639 --> 00:37:52,360
cold, but a cool desert,
you know, like a fog desert like,

580
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:57,039
not not a desert like there.
I was when I was at a

581
00:37:57,039 --> 00:38:00,639
place in two summers that that guy
Miles, the Ghost Place, and he

582
00:38:00,679 --> 00:38:01,960
had a bunch of Copia poet.
I was amazed he was able to keep

583
00:38:02,039 --> 00:38:05,199
him alive there. I'm like,
this is fucking tuson. How do you

584
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,000
do it? You know? I
was like, I don't know. He

585
00:38:07,119 --> 00:38:09,000
keeps them alive, no problem,
He grows them, no problem. The

586
00:38:09,079 --> 00:38:14,400
problem he has, they don't flower. Yeah, yeah, I could see.

587
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:19,159
I see that because it doesn't get
it's a totally different climate, you

588
00:38:19,199 --> 00:38:24,639
know, hot, hot and dry. It's like polar opposite of what.

589
00:38:25,519 --> 00:38:29,559
Yeah, man, Yeah, so
I I don't know, but I guess

590
00:38:29,559 --> 00:38:31,039
this brings up the whole thing I
wanted to ask you about too, because

591
00:38:31,079 --> 00:38:35,599
like that's one that's one world,
like you're kind of in that. I'm

592
00:38:35,639 --> 00:38:38,480
not. It's like the whole collector
and horticultural community, Like you'll do greenhouse

593
00:38:38,559 --> 00:38:44,159
tours and greenhouse videos and I guess
what, Yeah, what is your take

594
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:47,239
on that? Like, what's your
take on the whole collector community? The

595
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:51,480
positives of it, the negatives of
it? You know, is it can

596
00:38:51,519 --> 00:38:55,000
it serve as a gateway drug to
getting people into evolution and ecology that kind

597
00:38:55,039 --> 00:38:58,920
of thing. I think it can. I think that. I think that,

598
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,760
Uh, overall, i'd say it's
good. There are some aspects to

599
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:07,920
it that are less than positive.
I mean, you know, like we

600
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:10,119
talked about this before, but basically
I kind of see it like there are

601
00:39:10,159 --> 00:39:17,360
two main archetypes of the cactus collector
quote unquote, and you've got you've got

602
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:22,559
the people kind of like me,
that are interested in the plants in their

603
00:39:22,039 --> 00:39:25,840
environment and growing them from seed and
really kind of like learning about them and

604
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:34,039
appreciating them in the context of like
where they are actually from and how they

605
00:39:34,079 --> 00:39:37,960
interact with the other plants and insects
and animals in that environment. So like

606
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:44,320
the horticulturally minded collector, let's say, and then you've got the the like

607
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:53,039
the big game hunter collector, and
those those people tend to be. I

608
00:39:53,039 --> 00:39:58,079
think that that kind of like you
have like the Inner City Show, for

609
00:39:58,079 --> 00:40:02,159
instance, right which is is one
of the largest cactus and succulent shows in

610
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:07,239
the world, definitely the biggest one
in the United States. Happens every August

611
00:40:07,119 --> 00:40:12,800
at the Arboretum, and you have
three cactus clubs from around Los Angeles that

612
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,360
all come together, and you have
all like the people that collect and grow

613
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,639
from all these different clubs and really
from all over the country for that matter,

614
00:40:20,679 --> 00:40:27,400
that'll bring in their show plants beautifully
staged and they're on display for the

615
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,960
weekend. And then you've got vendors
outside. There's all kinds of great plants

616
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:34,840
for sale, usually at pretty good
prices and stuff like that. And I

617
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,599
think that there's this weird part of
that where you go and you're like,

618
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,480
it's changed a lot since I first
came in. Like the first time I

619
00:40:42,519 --> 00:40:45,159
went to one of those, I
was kind of surprised because there's a lot

620
00:40:45,199 --> 00:40:50,400
of habitat plants, and so I
think that when you get into the world

621
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:58,639
of like really like only wanting to
have the biggest, best, rarest like

622
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,639
things so you could show it off
and get a trophy, that shit ends

623
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:07,119
up. You know. That's why
there's poachers, That's why there's boxes and

624
00:41:07,159 --> 00:41:14,760
boxes of plants coming into the US
that are you know, getting illicitly distributed,

625
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,840
you know, to to collectors all
around the country. I've been in

626
00:41:19,039 --> 00:41:22,960
tons and tons of greenhouses. I've
been in greenhouses, many of which I

627
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,119
have filmed, and you've seen the
entirety of them. And then there I've

628
00:41:25,119 --> 00:41:30,639
been in greenhouses where I was not
allowed to take photos because it's all habitat

629
00:41:30,639 --> 00:41:34,719
plants, and it's like like they
don't want to turn they want it to

630
00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:38,199
turn up hot. It's just like
this is like an evidenced locker, right,

631
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,159
you know. I remember I've talked
with a couple of people that have

632
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,639
really big poast plant collections and they
just don't like you know, the one

633
00:41:46,679 --> 00:41:51,360
guy in particular just doesn't even really
know the names of things, Like I

634
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,480
remember getting very excited. I mean, it's it's a very weird feeling to

635
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,480
see like a whole bench of field
collected copiapoas, even though I've never been

636
00:41:57,519 --> 00:41:59,679
to Chile, you know what I
mean. Yeah, and you see these

637
00:41:59,679 --> 00:42:01,679
things almost like prisoners. You know, it's almost like a cell block in

638
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:06,719
some way, you know, but
like it is, you know, I

639
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,199
recognize one of them. Was like, holy shit, that's serpentisilkata and he

640
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:13,079
was like, I don't know,
it's a copiapoa. And I'm just sitting

641
00:42:13,079 --> 00:42:16,480
there going like like really, bro, like you don't you don't even know?

642
00:42:16,519 --> 00:42:19,960
And I asked him, I said, hey, would you mind if

643
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,639
during like the flowering season, if
I came over here and like managed pollinations

644
00:42:23,639 --> 00:42:28,760
and collected seed so that you know, just because these are obviously like true

645
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,079
genetics are what they actually are,
you don't want to do it. That's

646
00:42:32,199 --> 00:42:37,920
mine, that's I'm the only one
that had that. Yeah, that kind

647
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:40,599
of mindset is weird to me,
where it's like, you know, then

648
00:42:40,599 --> 00:42:46,400
I've got you know, a lot
of the people that I am friends with

649
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:51,159
and that I interact with and I'm
close to in the in the hobby.

650
00:42:51,199 --> 00:42:52,800
I guess you could say, are
the people that are growing from seed,

651
00:42:53,159 --> 00:42:57,360
you know, and that are like
we're we're very generous. We passed seed

652
00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:01,559
back and forth to one another,
like that's the way. Yeah, and

653
00:43:01,599 --> 00:43:07,440
it's actual for my take, and
I I don't really I mean, I

654
00:43:07,599 --> 00:43:09,599
just go on what I've heard.
And also the when I was first getting

655
00:43:09,599 --> 00:43:13,079
into this, like the few old
nurseries, I remember like we'd go to

656
00:43:13,119 --> 00:43:17,199
like Poots right like in the Central
Valley and and uh and we stopped,

657
00:43:17,559 --> 00:43:21,360
you know, we'd be like d
be like driving to fucking go to the

658
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:22,920
mountains. We'd stop, but we
owe Poots keect the stores to check it

659
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:27,679
out and and and it was definitely
seemed like it appealed to this like this

660
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,559
old man crowd, you know,
like the more like like the weird guy

661
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:34,440
not and I'm not shit animal,
but you know, like the the the

662
00:43:34,559 --> 00:43:37,360
archetype of like the kind of like
weird, quiet old man who's just like

663
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:43,000
a collector and has all these plants. And that was like the customer like

664
00:43:43,039 --> 00:43:45,719
the client telbase versus now, you
know, and it was just about collecting

665
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:50,039
like the same way you'd collect fucking
the penthes or orchids or whatever. And

666
00:43:50,079 --> 00:43:52,039
now I see this whole crew and
I think, you know, people like

667
00:43:52,119 --> 00:43:58,159
you are responsible for starting it,
which is fucking cool of younger dudes from

668
00:43:58,199 --> 00:44:01,159
different you know, from backgrounds that
aren't you know, whether they were like

669
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:06,079
people. There's like in San Antonio's
like a whole crew like like you know,

670
00:44:06,159 --> 00:44:08,519
graffiti guys like dudes that used to
get used to do graffiti that have

671
00:44:08,599 --> 00:44:13,360
been locked up for graffiti that are
fucking artists and tattoo people whatever who are

672
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,079
now into into growing plants from seed
and it's it feels it just feels a

673
00:44:17,119 --> 00:44:20,519
lot better in my opinion. And
they're like, oh fuck yeah, and

674
00:44:20,519 --> 00:44:23,079
they've got this kind of like reverence
for nature. So it moved from like

675
00:44:23,119 --> 00:44:27,800
this, you know, just like
to collect like you know, the weird,

676
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:30,800
like the people that you know,
I felt like no relation to like

677
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:36,400
the old guy collector crowd, but
could be cactus could be orchids, could

678
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,639
be fucking gemstones whatever, it's right
right right yeah, Like it's like a

679
00:44:40,679 --> 00:44:45,840
fucking rich dentist or like a botox
doctor who goes on fucking tropical like Safari

680
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:52,440
fucking you know, some fucking big
some pig villain. But anyway, I

681
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:54,840
feel like that's a that's like almost
worse. It's like a whole like other

682
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,559
crowd. But you know, you
know, you know what I mean.

683
00:44:58,039 --> 00:45:00,800
And like I remember went to an
orc show in SF once, like twenty

684
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:04,440
fifteen when it was in the park, Like we were we were walking around

685
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:06,639
the park on acid when they're like, oh, like the fucking Orchid Show,

686
00:45:06,679 --> 00:45:07,400
let's go check it out. And
it was like the vibe in there

687
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:10,360
was weird. It was like no
one was under the age fifty five there.

688
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:15,440
You know. I went to a
Bromiliad show up in Sacramento and it

689
00:45:15,119 --> 00:45:19,639
was kind of the same vibe I
thought it was. There was a lot

690
00:45:19,679 --> 00:45:23,119
of really cool looking plants, and
it was primarily an older than the graphic,

691
00:45:23,159 --> 00:45:27,360
which I don't necessarily mind. I
mean, I kind of expected that

692
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,559
that's what I was gonna encounter with
the Cactus Clubs. I was a little

693
00:45:30,599 --> 00:45:34,559
blown away to walk in and see
like a bunch of young hip like you

694
00:45:34,599 --> 00:45:37,559
know, people wearing like supreme hats
and shit. Oh yeah, well it

695
00:45:37,599 --> 00:45:39,639
was fun, but it wasn't just
old. It was like old Caucasia.

696
00:45:39,639 --> 00:45:43,960
It was old Anglo too, which
has its whole other different vibe. It's

697
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,519
more, you know what I mean, at least for like the orchid thing.

698
00:45:46,559 --> 00:45:49,719
And again I'm not knock anybody,
but it was just like, Okay,

699
00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:51,960
that's cool, but it's just not
for me. You know, I'd

700
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:53,679
like to go to a dog show
one day, you know, like I

701
00:45:53,679 --> 00:45:57,480
don't do pot, but if I
did pot, I'd eat a shit done

702
00:45:57,639 --> 00:46:00,280
edibles with some friends and we'd go
to the dogs show, sho and fucking

703
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:02,280
mister dog show. Let me know. If you're gonna do that, I'll

704
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:06,320
go. It sounds fucking hilarious,
you know, like what's up with the

705
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:09,559
sharpay the shar Pei in the fucking
the Boston Terrier are getting you know,

706
00:46:09,639 --> 00:46:14,880
what's your favorite fucking dog show?
That'd be kind of fun. Yeah,

707
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:16,440
But anyway, they you know,
I see this new crowd. It's like

708
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:21,079
all these you know, young kids
and young people that are into it,

709
00:46:21,119 --> 00:46:24,400
and there's like cool fucking artwork and
it's just a different vibe and I think

710
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:29,000
it's really fucking awesome. I'm like, you know, it seems to really

711
00:46:29,079 --> 00:46:32,599
like it really seemed to spring out
of the pandemic. I mean, like,

712
00:46:34,079 --> 00:46:38,360
uh, I have to give a
little shout out to my buddy Oscar

713
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:45,920
at Green Touch Nursery because he and
I during the quarantine threw a pop up

714
00:46:45,039 --> 00:46:50,039
at his nursery because it's agriculture,
so we were able to do it.

715
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,800
There was nothing happening, right,
and I just know all the plant events

716
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:57,000
because it's all old people, they
all got canceled. Everything was shut down,

717
00:46:57,039 --> 00:47:00,639
even though they could have done it, yeah they didn't. And these

718
00:47:00,679 --> 00:47:06,679
things were like honestly shockingly successful,
Like the amount of people that came to

719
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:14,039
these was mind boggling. And it's
uh, it has just not stopped from

720
00:47:14,079 --> 00:47:15,599
there. And you know a lot
of people are like, what do you

721
00:47:15,599 --> 00:47:19,159
think is gonna happen when the quarantine
ends, Like people are not really going

722
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:21,280
to go back to work and stop
collecting. And I was like, I

723
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:23,719
don't know if you can get this
into it and then just like no,

724
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:27,519
not into it. Suddenly, you
know, no, fuck that. Yeah,

725
00:47:27,559 --> 00:47:30,639
and it moves. It moves from
collecting too, It moves from collecting

726
00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:32,559
into fucking Now I'm now I'm into
nature now, I want to see I

727
00:47:32,599 --> 00:47:36,440
want to learn more. You know, well, it's so it moves and

728
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:39,719
what What's what's also cool is that
you kind of move like I'm not interested

729
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,719
in buying anything that I don't want
to grow. So like, if if

730
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,199
I'm going to buy a plant for
myself, it's because I need a pair,

731
00:47:47,599 --> 00:47:51,719
you know, so I can make
my own seed. Uh. And

732
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:53,480
I think that's one of the cool
things, Like you've got, Like I

733
00:47:53,519 --> 00:47:58,719
said, there's those two archetypes.
And I'm not not stupid, you know

734
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:00,360
what I mean. Like, I
don't think I'm gonna come in and you

735
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,159
know, with some YouTube videos and
whatever else I'm doing, I'm going to

736
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,480
take people that have been collecting field
collected plants for years and don't give a

737
00:48:07,519 --> 00:48:09,360
shit. I'm not gonna get them
to change, right, And I don't

738
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:15,480
really that's not my goal. But
what I have definitely consciously done is I

739
00:48:15,599 --> 00:48:19,280
have just promoted what I want to
see, what I want the hobby to

740
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,559
look like, which is people that
are excited about growing stuff from seed.

741
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,440
Like I'm sitting in my office right
now, I got two grow raps right

742
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:30,400
here, and I mean, dude, there is tons. I've got hundreds

743
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:34,639
of different species in here, all
kinds of stuff sprouting up. And this

744
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,719
is like it's the coolest shit ever
and to get people excited about that.

745
00:48:38,519 --> 00:48:44,079
And one of the things that I
think has been mind boggling is that I

746
00:48:44,159 --> 00:48:47,719
meet people anytime I go out to
do some plant related stuff. I meet

747
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:51,079
people all the time who will come
up to me and be like, hey,

748
00:48:51,079 --> 00:48:55,199
man, you're responsible for me getting
into cactus. I found your channel,

749
00:48:55,360 --> 00:49:00,599
watched a couple of your videos,
and then I started collecting and growing

750
00:49:00,639 --> 00:49:02,519
them from seed, and like,
I'm totally into it now. That shit

751
00:49:02,559 --> 00:49:06,880
blows me away. I never thought
I never really even considered that, you

752
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:09,559
know, like I just sort of
assumed that the people that were going to

753
00:49:09,599 --> 00:49:13,679
be watching whatever I was putting out
would be people that were already into it.

754
00:49:14,079 --> 00:49:17,360
And I think I was gonna be
like converting non plant people into becoming

755
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:22,719
plant people, and so like that's
really kind of like trying to set a

756
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:28,679
different tone for the hobby moving into
the future, because it can't be the

757
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:31,119
way that it used to be.
No, well, what I don't think

758
00:49:31,159 --> 00:49:35,639
it would be because it's a whole
different demographic too, and it's and now

759
00:49:35,639 --> 00:49:38,280
it's not just about collecting things,
Like that's my hope, Like I the

760
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:42,440
collecting thing I think, like,
yeah, I have mixed films about it

761
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,079
whatever. I think it can get
super weird and nerdy at times, and

762
00:49:45,199 --> 00:49:47,320
I think it can be really awesome
because I've you see the ship people do,

763
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:52,880
and they're what they're getting into.
And then it it's especially among the

764
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:57,039
younger crowd, it's accompanied by good, good ethics and good values and kind

765
00:49:57,079 --> 00:50:00,039
of this reverence for nature because I
think young people especially know like ship's kind

766
00:50:00,079 --> 00:50:05,679
of fucked up. Like the all
American retail sprawled death cult is a death

767
00:50:05,679 --> 00:50:07,639
cult. It feels bad, it
feels bad to be in. It's a

768
00:50:07,679 --> 00:50:14,519
fucking exploitative system. It exploits nature, it exploits landscapes, It fucking farms

769
00:50:14,559 --> 00:50:17,559
people as consumers. It sucks,
and it's the system is so fucking game

770
00:50:17,679 --> 00:50:22,079
now too. I mean, the
middle class is basically gone. Homeownership is

771
00:50:22,159 --> 00:50:29,400
completely off the fucking table for a
huge chunk of the population. And so

772
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:31,360
I think all this shit ties in
like that's part of it. Like the

773
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:34,679
people know that, and they're like, man, this sucks, but this

774
00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:37,760
over here feels really good. So
I'm gonna keep doing this. I'm gonna

775
00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:40,199
keep sniffing on this. And then
it turns in Maybe someone won't get into

776
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:44,119
it, maybe they'll just you know, they'll just be a collective thing for

777
00:50:44,159 --> 00:50:45,960
a while, it'll fizzle out,
whatever. But I think in quite a

778
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:49,800
few cases it turns into something bigger. And now they're like, I want

779
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:52,440
to learn more about habitat. I
want to learn more about the geology.

780
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:57,880
Why do these plants only grow on
limestone? Why are you know what pollinates

781
00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:00,800
this? Oh? Wow? This
is this evolved? Like what's the soil

782
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:04,480
microbes? What are they doing?
What's involved here? Oh? Wow?

783
00:51:04,559 --> 00:51:08,760
Cactus roots can dissolve you know,
harbor bacteria that you know, produce enzymes

784
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:13,119
that can dissolve rock that basically eat
rock. Wow? How does that?

785
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:15,920
Like? What the fuck? How
does that work? You know? Well

786
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:19,880
like that, I mean, so
Pakikorma's discolor down in Baja, Like it's

787
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:23,880
the first it's the first thing that
will start germinating and growing in the lava

788
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:29,199
flows, and then its roots will
start to split it up and it'll break

789
00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:31,760
the rock down and it'll make it
so that other stuff can grow there.

790
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:38,440
I mean, it's like I feel
like there's endless, endless fascination where you

791
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:43,159
could watch turn on TV and it's
endless devastation, you know what I mean,

792
00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:47,519
like or just mindless garbage. Like
I don't watch a lot of TV

793
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:51,360
at all, you know what I
mean, I can't. I just don't

794
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,760
care. It's not real. And
when I get when I go out and

795
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:57,920
i'm walking, I swear to I
mean, like I hate to sound like

796
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:00,960
wooloo or something like that. Like
I got crystals off through it, through

797
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:04,840
it. We embraced that shit now, I mean, dude, I think

798
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:07,960
that's the other thing too, is
like seeing these guys like and the dude

799
00:52:07,039 --> 00:52:08,559
hit me up the other day,
was like, hey, man, check

800
00:52:08,599 --> 00:52:12,360
this out. Next time you're up
in northern California, holler at me.

801
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:15,440
I'll take you to go see the
Site's awesome. The dude looks. I

802
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:17,920
mean, he's got like a fucking
spider web tattoo on his bald head.

803
00:52:19,199 --> 00:52:21,480
You know, he's got like a
big biker beard. I'm like, fuck

804
00:52:21,599 --> 00:52:22,920
yeah, dude, I'll look at
plants with this guy, you know what

805
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:28,239
I mean. Like it's sort of
like sheds. You can't be into plants

806
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:30,280
and be like a macho man at
the same time, you know what I

807
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:32,760
mean. It kind of sheds.
The bravado and you get to just be

808
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,800
like it. You kind of get
to be like a child, like you

809
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:40,199
were saying, like but like getting
off topic a little bit here, but

810
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:45,360
like being out there man, Like
it feels right, like that's what I

811
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:51,239
evolved to be walking through the world, not you know, like I'm not.

812
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,039
I didn't evolve to be sitting in
a fucking desk chair in front of

813
00:52:53,039 --> 00:52:58,280
a you know, a whole bunch
of different glowing things that are fucking my

814
00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:00,400
eyesight up and all this shit.
You know, I think, I think,

815
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:02,599
you know, I think you can't
be in the plants. I think,

816
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:07,079
especially like almost more specifically, you
can't be in the plants and not

817
00:53:07,079 --> 00:53:10,400
not have a little bit of humility
and a sense of something greater than yourself.

818
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:15,559
You know, I think that that
is It's a good you know,

819
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:20,000
despite whatever front someone has up,
whatever, you know, people always get

820
00:53:20,039 --> 00:53:22,320
into petty bullshit whatever, I think, there's still at the heart of it.

821
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:27,119
When you get beneath all that,
there's there's humility, and there's there's

822
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:31,360
reverence, and there's an appreciation for
something larger than yourself. And it feels

823
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,519
good to be around these things,
you know, these other living things.

824
00:53:36,519 --> 00:53:38,760
Well, you start realizing like,
Okay, you're hiking on you know,

825
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:44,559
a multi million year old you know, limestone, and then there's like you're

826
00:53:44,599 --> 00:53:47,480
looking at a fifteen hundred year old
Joshua tree that's older than the United States.

827
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,480
You know. It's like a different
it's like a different thing. It

828
00:53:52,679 --> 00:53:58,440
just is you get into it.
There's almost a psychedelic aspect to it.

829
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,960
And I'm not talking like with zero
substances, just being out there with all

830
00:54:02,039 --> 00:54:07,400
that. Oh yeah, definitely feeling
the wind and hearing the crunch and like

831
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:13,280
like you read about how desert varnish, how long it takes to form on

832
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:15,199
a rock, you know, and
then you walk out there and you flip

833
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:19,039
a rock over and you're like,
man, this rock's been sitting in this

834
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:23,880
same place for thousands of years.
Nobody's touched this thing for thousands of years,

835
00:54:24,519 --> 00:54:28,920
you know. Where it's like,
I mean, that's not the case.

836
00:54:29,079 --> 00:54:31,280
That is a pretty wid I forget
about. That's something that you encounter

837
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:35,000
in the Mojavea a lot, like
it's it's where I live. It's like

838
00:54:35,039 --> 00:54:37,880
a little too I don't want to
say lush, but there's so much but

839
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:40,199
like out in the like Death Valley
area where it's super barren. I mean,

840
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:44,679
yeah, you'll you'll or like even
West Texas, you'll move rocks and

841
00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:47,679
you could see like the calichi,
like the white powder around it is like

842
00:54:49,199 --> 00:54:52,719
indented, you know, like it's
of it. It's caked up like an

843
00:54:52,760 --> 00:54:57,039
inch like that rock's been there for
that fucking long for all this stuff to

844
00:54:57,159 --> 00:55:01,239
accumulate, you know, it's like
Jesus christ Man like, yeah, I

845
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:05,639
don't know, it's a pretty it's
a pretty amazing thing. So why why

846
00:55:05,639 --> 00:55:09,639
do you think desert plants got you
instead of like you know, California chaparral

847
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:14,159
or fucking redwoods or something like that. What was it about desert plants?

848
00:55:14,239 --> 00:55:16,880
Was it just because they can tough
it out? Or what? I think

849
00:55:16,920 --> 00:55:19,880
that? I mean, I think
there's a lot of that. Like I

850
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:23,320
had a bit of a rough you
know, from let's say like thirteen to

851
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:30,000
like twenty two, like that was
you know, that was like me tipped

852
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:32,840
over with you know, partially buried
with my roots exposed to full sun.

853
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:36,079
And those where those years for me, you know what I mean? Yeah,

854
00:55:36,119 --> 00:55:38,400
So I think that I think that, yeah, that resilience and that

855
00:55:38,559 --> 00:55:47,000
like that dogged determination to survive.
You know, I think is is uh,

856
00:55:47,039 --> 00:55:53,719
it really really resonates with me.
And also I feel I feel at

857
00:55:53,719 --> 00:56:00,320
home in the desert. I I'm
from California originally, but I've lived lived

858
00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:04,960
in several places in South Texas.
I lived in Hebronville, Texas. I

859
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:08,280
lived in Alice, Texas. I
lived in McCallin, Texas. I lived

860
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:14,159
in tama Alipas, Mexico. I
lived in Victodia, tam Alipas. So

861
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,760
like, I've lived in a few
different places. And when I lived in

862
00:56:17,079 --> 00:56:22,440
Temaalipas, we lived on a ranch. It's five hundred acres and like,

863
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,159
you know, I was in fifth
grade at the time, and I used

864
00:56:24,159 --> 00:56:28,800
to just ride my bike or ride
my dirt bike, and I'd go explore.

865
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:31,119
I'd fished every day, and it
was like, you know, it

866
00:56:31,159 --> 00:56:37,440
reminds me of it, just it
reminds me of my childhood kind of being

867
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:39,239
out in the desert. Reminds me
of my dad too, who I don't

868
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:42,920
have anymore. So I think that's
part of it, Like I feel close

869
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:46,679
to him out there, which is
interesting. But yeah, and I think

870
00:56:46,679 --> 00:56:53,039
that for me, really it's that
just that ruggedness. I feel like I

871
00:56:53,039 --> 00:56:59,239
feel like I had a pretty rugged
early life, and so I it's inspiring

872
00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:01,880
to watch these plays ants be able
to like persevere, you know. Yeah,

873
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:07,079
yeah, so you gotta you gotta
kinship with him definitely from a both

874
00:57:07,119 --> 00:57:13,119
growing in a somewhat hard environment,
a somewhat trying environment. Yeah, yeah,

875
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:15,440
it's not like that now, you
know. It's like, you know,

876
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:17,280
it's funny too. I think,
like, what are my My kids

877
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:21,079
aren't gonna have that, you know, they don't know. It's like their

878
00:57:21,159 --> 00:57:23,400
experience is way different than what mine
was. Maybe they'll be in the ferns

879
00:57:23,519 --> 00:57:27,199
or something. Maybe it'll be like
people, you know, but yeah,

880
00:57:27,239 --> 00:57:29,559
I was the same way. I
had like a fucked up child. I

881
00:57:29,559 --> 00:57:34,199
got sent to all these different fucking
reform institutions, and you know it was

882
00:57:34,239 --> 00:57:37,760
I was grew up fighting all the
time and ship like a fucked up,

883
00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:42,400
a fucked up child that yeah,
yeah, I mean, dude, you

884
00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:44,480
know, I think people probably I
don't know if they'd be surprised or not,

885
00:57:44,559 --> 00:57:46,599
but I mean in and out like
I struggled with, uh, you

886
00:57:46,639 --> 00:57:52,760
know, substance abuse and was in
that of rehabit uh subsequently in and out

887
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:55,360
of jail and that kind of stuff, you know, So it was pretty

888
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:59,800
rocky. It's pretty rocky there for
a while. And uh, you know,

889
00:58:00,039 --> 00:58:04,679
but I got sober in my early
twenties, and you know, that

890
00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:08,400
was sort of the beginning of a
different chapter, you know. And I

891
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:14,360
think that for me, finding plants
and really getting connected with them has like

892
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:22,199
given given my life. I don't
know, Like I don't want to say

893
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,719
meaning, because I've got meaning in
other areas of my life, but it's

894
00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:35,159
given me something to really like love
and to look forward to and to meditate

895
00:58:35,199 --> 00:58:37,000
with. I mean, I swear
to God man, like going to my

896
00:58:37,039 --> 00:58:38,000
greenhouse, people always ask me,
like, when are you gonna do a

897
00:58:38,039 --> 00:58:42,719
greenhouse video in your own greenhouse?
And it's like, I don't even take

898
00:58:42,719 --> 00:58:45,639
pictures hardly anymore when I go to
my own greenhouse because when I'm there,

899
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:52,920
that's like that's my time where I'm
literally in the zone. I just immediately

900
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:59,079
just start tending my plants, whether
it's repotting or you know, rearranging or

901
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:06,840
whatever it is. It's the most
peaceful like working meditation, and I like,

902
00:59:07,199 --> 00:59:12,119
I feel unbelievably lucky that that's what
I get to do like every day.

903
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:15,519
And sometimes I pinch myself. It's
like, as a matter of fact,

904
00:59:15,519 --> 00:59:19,239
I remember, I remember the first
time it sort of hit me,

905
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,199
like I was driving. I remember
thinking like, man, I just wish

906
00:59:22,239 --> 00:59:23,320
I could do this, Like I
wish I could do this for a living,

907
00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:24,639
you know, I wish I could
get it to where I could do

908
00:59:24,719 --> 00:59:28,599
this for a living. And I
remember, like I was driving to go

909
00:59:29,199 --> 00:59:30,920
down to San Diego to go meet
some growers to go buy some plants and

910
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:37,119
stuff, and it suddenly hit me
like, holy shit, I'm going to

911
00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:42,679
work today. And I used to
tell my wife would be so cool if

912
00:59:42,679 --> 00:59:45,840
I get paid to walk around nurseries, you know, yeah, And I

913
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:47,079
was like, man, I'm getting
paid to walk around nurseries today. That

914
00:59:47,199 --> 00:59:51,400
is the craziest shit, Like it's
so awesome, and I feel like,

915
00:59:53,079 --> 00:59:55,400
I don't know, I feel like
it's like it's like a gift that I

916
00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:59,360
get from the plants for taking care
of them, you know, like they

917
00:59:59,400 --> 01:00:00,360
take care of me and I take
care of them, and it's like this,

918
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:05,159
I don't know if they know they're
taking care of me, but I

919
01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:07,079
like to think that they do.
Yeah. Yeah, so what so what

920
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:12,440
do you so? Mostly you got
the video you grow plants, you do

921
01:00:12,559 --> 01:00:15,400
pop ups. You've made some really
cool fucking shirts too. By the way,

922
01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:19,480
I like the limestone one that was. I always like it when people

923
01:00:19,519 --> 01:00:22,239
bring attention to geology, like it's
not it's not just in a side.

924
01:00:22,239 --> 01:00:27,039
It doesn't just happen to be what
they're growing on. It's the reason why

925
01:00:27,079 --> 01:00:30,519
they're there. Well, all of
my favorite plants grow out a limestone,

926
01:00:30,559 --> 01:00:34,119
like literally all of them. Yeah, it's like, I mean, it's

927
01:00:34,159 --> 01:00:37,599
except for Copiapoa's they don't grow at
a limestone. But yeah, yeah,

928
01:00:37,679 --> 01:00:40,559
I mean so basically that's pretty much
it. The only other thing that I

929
01:00:40,599 --> 01:00:45,800
do is I make, you know, I make pots. I started doing

930
01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:50,599
ceramics. I did a video with
a guy who was a potter very early

931
01:00:50,639 --> 01:00:52,559
on with a channel, and I
asked him if maybe he'd be willing to,

932
01:00:52,599 --> 01:00:55,360
like, you know, show me
how to throw. And he just

933
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:58,920
gave me a little tool kit and
a bag of clay and was like,

934
01:00:59,719 --> 01:01:01,280
I'll had to throw, but you
can just start making pots in the meantime.

935
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:05,320
Yeah, And I was like,
what do Just just make them?

936
01:01:05,360 --> 01:01:07,480
He goes, yeah, just make
them. I was like, I don't

937
01:01:07,519 --> 01:01:10,800
need like a wheel. He's like
no, and the rest of history.

938
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:19,079
I started making pots, and fortunately
it's been it's really actually been super humbling.

939
01:01:19,159 --> 01:01:25,239
Like every time I make pots,
people want them, and yeah they're

940
01:01:25,719 --> 01:01:29,800
beautiful. Yeah, they're beautiful.
I've seen I've seen them. Man,

941
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:32,079
they're fucking they're really nice. It's
it's fucking cool, you know what I

942
01:01:32,079 --> 01:01:34,960
thought, you know what? It
almost reminded me of like some of like

943
01:01:35,159 --> 01:01:38,239
when you'll see forget where where I
was. It was somewhere in the Four

944
01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:42,760
Corners region, but you know,
speaking of like making posts without a wheel,

945
01:01:42,800 --> 01:01:45,280
but there's areas where you can see, you know, pottery shirts are

946
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:49,719
just abundant. They're probably fucking five
hundred to a thousand years old, who

947
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:52,880
knows. But you could see the
method they used where they just started with

948
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:57,639
a coil, like a coil of
clay. Yeah, and they didn't they

949
01:01:57,639 --> 01:02:00,559
didn't just take like a mass and
like mold it with their tht and their

950
01:02:00,599 --> 01:02:04,239
fingers like they started with like a
There was a really cool process to it.

951
01:02:04,280 --> 01:02:06,440
I find that shit's so interesting.
Man, I'd love to know how

952
01:02:06,519 --> 01:02:08,800
they how they did that, what
the process was, how they you know,

953
01:02:09,159 --> 01:02:14,559
turned a coil into a pot basically, Yeah, I mean so like

954
01:02:14,639 --> 01:02:19,920
all of that. You know,
I think it's it feels like, you

955
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:22,440
know, I'm a creative person,
and I think that was one of the

956
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:28,400
things that was like like a slow
death as a sales rep is that there's

957
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:31,360
not really much creativity going into that, you know, like it's like just

958
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:36,079
stick to the script and you know, go for this sale. That's just

959
01:02:36,119 --> 01:02:37,519
not really what I want to be
doing every day. Yeah, And so

960
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:45,480
I think like being able to create
pots things that I make with my hand

961
01:02:45,639 --> 01:02:50,039
and that people really want them,
It's like it's a real honor. And

962
01:02:50,079 --> 01:02:52,320
then to be able to grow plants
and to be able to sell them and

963
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:57,559
make videos and that's what I do
for a living. It's it's kind of

964
01:02:57,559 --> 01:03:01,079
a trip, man, honestly just
blows my mind. Yeah, and shout

965
01:03:01,119 --> 01:03:05,400
out to everybody out there who's been
supporting me. You know, I love

966
01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:07,400
you guys. You also you also
do I mean, you've been a habitat

967
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:09,519
a bunch you go to Mexico.
Where have you? Where have you been

968
01:03:09,559 --> 01:03:13,599
in Mexico? Like where what areas
have you spent time in and looking for

969
01:03:13,639 --> 01:03:17,840
what? So? Uh we went
to I've been to Baja a few times,

970
01:03:20,119 --> 01:03:27,119
Wahaka and then Kouela, San Luis
Potos and Zacatecas and then Leone as

971
01:03:27,159 --> 01:03:37,199
well. We basically set out in
Baja. I actually went the first time

972
01:03:37,239 --> 01:03:39,159
I went to Baja, I traveled
with uh oh, you know what.

973
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:44,519
Actually I've been to Chiapas and Guatemala
as well. That was pretty epic.

974
01:03:44,679 --> 01:03:45,719
Yeah, and actually, dude,
that was nuts. So when we went

975
01:03:45,760 --> 01:03:50,920
to Chiapas, this is my first
ever trip, I mean trip out of

976
01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:52,800
the country. Is sort of funny. Like I did a video with Jeremy

977
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:58,199
Spath hitting a gode right and we
went out into into the Mojave. We

978
01:03:58,239 --> 01:04:00,679
spent a few days together, him
and Kevin and so we shot at video.

979
01:04:00,760 --> 01:04:03,360
There's one scene in the video where
we're in his truck and he's telling

980
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:08,639
me a story about how about his
first time going out into the field and

981
01:04:08,639 --> 01:04:11,000
how he went out to the field. This guy, Kelly Griffin, who's

982
01:04:11,039 --> 01:04:16,159
like a very well known aloe hybridizer
and a gave guy as well, and

983
01:04:16,719 --> 01:04:18,440
he, you know, he's like, yeah, people were telling me,

984
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:20,599
man, if you get the chance
to go with Kelly, you know you're

985
01:04:20,599 --> 01:04:26,320
gonna be friends with him for life. And you know, then Kelly invited

986
01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:28,559
him to go on a trip and
they were gone for two weeks and he

987
01:04:28,639 --> 01:04:30,360
was like he was the best thing
ever. And then I was sitting there

988
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:36,960
tripping out, like man, I
was that was my first trip with Jeremy

989
01:04:38,159 --> 01:04:41,119
where he's telling me this story about
his first trip, and I have found

990
01:04:41,119 --> 01:04:43,920
it to be the exact same thing. He and I have become really close

991
01:04:43,920 --> 01:04:47,320
friends and we've been on a ton
of trips together. We went it was

992
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:53,320
me, him and Kelly. We
went to cheap Us. As we're leaving,

993
01:04:54,239 --> 01:04:57,599
Jeremy says, you know, I'd
kind of like to go into Guatemala.

994
01:04:57,679 --> 01:04:59,840
I want to go up to this
one spot and see if we could

995
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:02,760
have find a gove herder eye.
And I'm sitting there going like, what

996
01:05:03,079 --> 01:05:06,360
you want to go to Guatemala,
Like that's not part of what we were

997
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:09,719
doing. You know, sit there, going to get a little nervous.

998
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:13,119
And it's quarantine time, right,
so it's still like in the midst of

999
01:05:13,159 --> 01:05:16,280
the quarantine. So we get down
to the border of Guatemala and I mean,

1000
01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:20,719
dude, people talk about like our
border is porous. Dude. I

1001
01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:24,199
go into the office to try to
figure out what we have to do to

1002
01:05:24,239 --> 01:05:26,360
be able to cross the border,
and the guy goes, no, no,

1003
01:05:26,519 --> 01:05:29,440
no, you got to go back
into Mexico. You're already in Guatemala.

1004
01:05:29,960 --> 01:05:31,920
And I was like, wait,
we just I came out of the

1005
01:05:31,920 --> 01:05:33,719
office. I was like, hey, dude, he said, we got

1006
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:35,960
to go back to Mexico to do
the paperwork. But we're already here,

1007
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:40,000
so why don't we just go We
literally snuck it out of Guatemala like three

1008
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,440
times while we were there. Yeah, well going back in in Mexico,

1009
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:43,679
did you have it? What do
you have to do it? Do you

1010
01:05:43,760 --> 01:05:45,199
have issues? You just crossed back
in and show your passport or what.

1011
01:05:46,039 --> 01:05:50,400
We didn't do anything. We literally
didn't do anything. There's there's so they

1012
01:05:50,440 --> 01:05:56,000
have one like little chinsy like you
know, draw thing to stop cars from

1013
01:05:56,039 --> 01:06:00,519
going through. And then there's like
a you know, this little shopping plaza,

1014
01:06:00,239 --> 01:06:05,400
but there's a wall blocking the shopping
plaza. That is a pathway that

1015
01:06:05,519 --> 01:06:10,679
passes the border. So you could
literally just walk in to go shopping and

1016
01:06:10,800 --> 01:06:15,760
shop your way into Guatemala without having
to check you with any money. You

1017
01:06:15,880 --> 01:06:19,239
just have to be there before the
border closes because it closes at ten pm.

1018
01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:20,920
So that was it. But yeah, I mean, you know,

1019
01:06:21,039 --> 01:06:27,039
and I think there's another aspects to
that, like this is a little adventurous,

1020
01:06:27,039 --> 01:06:30,599
you know, like what is it
that your average person is going to

1021
01:06:30,679 --> 01:06:32,519
do where they're going to go on
some like adventure like that. You know,

1022
01:06:33,400 --> 01:06:36,159
Yeah, it's not something I would
I would ever do you know?

1023
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:42,280
Did you guys find We did?
Yeah. It was a little unremarkable.

1024
01:06:42,400 --> 01:06:46,519
I must say, it was just
a don't tell, they'll tell. I

1025
01:06:46,519 --> 01:06:48,719
think we all sort of felt that
way. I mean, yeah, you

1026
01:06:48,760 --> 01:06:51,559
know, we get up there,
it's like, uh, it's like okay,

1027
01:06:51,679 --> 01:06:57,960
yeah, here it is. I
mean, absolutely enormous, the largest

1028
01:06:57,960 --> 01:07:01,159
of gave I've ever seen. Now, the plant was a little unremarkable,

1029
01:07:01,199 --> 01:07:06,239
but you we're up at ten thousand
feet in the cloud forests of Guatemala.

1030
01:07:06,440 --> 01:07:13,760
It was wonderful. The entire experience
was incredible. And I think that's my

1031
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:17,239
favorite habitat after Desert's cloud forest.
So it's my favorite habitat by far.

1032
01:07:18,079 --> 01:07:21,559
Yeah. So you go from like
you know, you're you're in Chiapas and

1033
01:07:21,599 --> 01:07:26,679
it's it's not super dry. I
mean you're southern southern Mexico there, so

1034
01:07:26,679 --> 01:07:30,480
it's not super dry, but you've
got cactus in the flatlands and and uh,

1035
01:07:30,519 --> 01:07:31,760
you know, it's a little more
desert y. And then you cross

1036
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:35,840
over and suddenly you're like along some
river deep in this canyon and there's like

1037
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:41,400
pyloso series growing on the cliffs,
and I mean it was just incredible.

1038
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:45,719
And then the further you go up
the mountain, suddenly it starts to get

1039
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:49,599
cooler. And then now you have
coffee plantations and dude, the people,

1040
01:07:50,280 --> 01:07:55,119
the people that are growing coffee in
Guatemala, Dude, this these these spots

1041
01:07:55,159 --> 01:07:59,760
where they're growing coffee is so steep. It's incredible. Man. Like the

1042
01:08:00,039 --> 01:08:02,760
lot of these people getting out there
and like collecting all that coffee, it's

1043
01:08:02,880 --> 01:08:05,920
just mad. It's so crazy.
It was just cool to see all that

1044
01:08:05,960 --> 01:08:11,880
kind of stuff, you know.
So that was one trip. I think

1045
01:08:11,880 --> 01:08:16,039
one of my favorite trips of all
time was we went to Baja and we

1046
01:08:16,159 --> 01:08:19,840
ended up taking a couple of boat
rides. We landed in Loretto, We

1047
01:08:19,880 --> 01:08:24,000
went over to Magdalena Bay, went
to the two islands in the bay there,

1048
01:08:24,079 --> 01:08:29,399
Margarita and Magdalena, which is where
you have a gove Margarite sent a

1049
01:08:29,479 --> 01:08:34,159
serious aruca growing on the beaches.
I mean, yeah, oh wow,

1050
01:08:35,039 --> 01:08:38,720
that's cool. I think you would
ask me about it once, like I

1051
01:08:38,720 --> 01:08:41,479
posted a photo or a video or
something, and it was like, there

1052
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:46,560
resolve this like purple verbena growing all
around the the aruka, you know,

1053
01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:51,600
and so it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,

1054
01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:56,199
and then it's like, you know, I think there was another plant that

1055
01:08:56,239 --> 01:08:59,239
I found on that trip that I
put in the video. I don't remember

1056
01:08:59,239 --> 01:09:02,840
what it was called, but I
mean it was like I was as fascinated

1057
01:09:02,880 --> 01:09:05,760
with this plant as I was with
any other plant that I found on the

1058
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:11,399
trip. And I mean it smelled
like lemon fruit loops. Like literally,

1059
01:09:11,439 --> 01:09:14,319
I was We're waiting for the guy
to come back in the boat to pick

1060
01:09:14,359 --> 01:09:15,800
us up, and I'm sitting there
and I'm catching this with and I'm like

1061
01:09:15,960 --> 01:09:19,439
it's almost like cereal right here,
Like what does that smell? What family

1062
01:09:19,560 --> 01:09:24,199
was it? Was it a yellow
flower? I don't remember if it was

1063
01:09:24,239 --> 01:09:30,760
in flour or not. The leaves
had like little like uh like bladder pouches

1064
01:09:30,800 --> 01:09:32,800
all over them, so it looks
kind of crystally. I'll send you pictures

1065
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:35,720
of it. Oh well, I
think I actually hit you up for the

1066
01:09:35,800 --> 01:09:39,319
name of it. If I'm not
mistaken. Yeah, I remember you.

1067
01:09:39,399 --> 01:09:43,239
I remember you've posted stuff down and
baj that, like non cactus stuff,

1068
01:09:43,239 --> 01:09:44,960
and I've been like, oh,
fuck, that's awesome, you know,

1069
01:09:45,039 --> 01:09:46,319
like cause I spent I spent a
lot of time on that. I've gone

1070
01:09:46,319 --> 01:09:51,720
down there like twelve or fifteen times
now, especially in like the mid twenty

1071
01:09:51,800 --> 01:09:54,720
tens. I was going down there
a lot. I mean, that's where

1072
01:09:54,720 --> 01:09:56,680
I spent a lot of time learning, bonding. I remember when I first

1073
01:09:56,720 --> 01:10:00,399
when I first Sawstino seres Ruka for
the first time in Habita, I was

1074
01:10:00,439 --> 01:10:02,680
like, what the fuck this is? This is insane. This is the

1075
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:08,960
coolest, like a cactus that has
the same kind of distribution as the redwoods,

1076
01:10:08,960 --> 01:10:11,720
like it only grows within a mile
or two of the coast because it

1077
01:10:11,760 --> 01:10:15,439
needs that frog. You know.
Yeah, they're they're they're like fucking awesome

1078
01:10:15,439 --> 01:10:18,000
plants. And that was one where
I was actually able. I got uh

1079
01:10:18,359 --> 01:10:21,479
it was fruit on ton of the
plants. Geez. So I collected one

1080
01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:26,399
of them and I've got a bunch
of seedlings from from that population. Now,

1081
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:30,000
I would love to get photos of
that thing in flower too and see

1082
01:10:30,000 --> 01:10:33,279
what, yeah pollinates it, because
I know I think amosis is moth pollinated.

1083
01:10:34,479 --> 01:10:39,640
It's got white flowers, and it's
probably moth pollinated and then pollinated maybe

1084
01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:43,159
by bees in the morning if the
flowers stay open, you know, past

1085
01:10:43,279 --> 01:10:45,960
dawn. But uh god, the
fucking the ecology of those things is nuts.

1086
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:48,520
Like, how the fuck does it? How the fuck does a cactus

1087
01:10:48,960 --> 01:10:51,920
that's that big around in diameter with
you know, in terms of a stem,

1088
01:10:51,960 --> 01:10:55,720
like six inch stem diameter and stuff
case, how does it evolve to

1089
01:10:55,800 --> 01:10:59,319
grow prostrate on the ground, you
know, like, how does it?

1090
01:10:59,359 --> 01:11:01,359
How does it? How does the
environment select for that trade? You know?

1091
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:04,560
Yeah, I don't know. I
mean I think like it would be

1092
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:08,119
I think if I if I ever
had a time machine, like I would

1093
01:11:08,199 --> 01:11:11,000
go back to go see like what
was growing here, then you know,

1094
01:11:11,159 --> 01:11:14,720
like to try to fill in the
gaps because cactus apparently don't make good fossils,

1095
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:18,199
so yeah, make good fossils in
a lot of cases too. Yeah,

1096
01:11:18,279 --> 01:11:24,119
there's just well, so that same
trip then after that, like we're

1097
01:11:24,159 --> 01:11:27,279
you know, we're also fishing the
entire time, so I swear like every

1098
01:11:27,319 --> 01:11:30,760
single night we're eating what we caught
that day. And then we ended up

1099
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:35,199
going back to the Sea of Cortes
side and we took a fuck dude,

1100
01:11:35,239 --> 01:11:40,720
a little tiny boat, one of
those little pongas all the way to uh

1101
01:11:41,600 --> 01:11:46,359
the island where faro cactus daghetti grows. Uninhabited island. It's the only place

1102
01:11:46,560 --> 01:11:53,359
in the world where the rattleless rattlesnake
lives. Oh yeah, did you see

1103
01:11:53,359 --> 01:11:56,640
any No, we saw those snakes. And it's crazy. Every single person

1104
01:11:56,640 --> 01:11:59,039
that we asked about the island was
like, oh, don't go there,

1105
01:11:59,079 --> 01:12:01,359
there's so many snake. They made
it sound like we're gonna step off and

1106
01:12:01,399 --> 01:12:03,920
like have snakes trying to wrap around
our ankles and stuff. You know what

1107
01:12:03,920 --> 01:12:08,960
I mean. We never saw one
snake at all, But I mean that

1108
01:12:08,960 --> 01:12:14,479
that place you like seeing you so
you're you know, you're in like central

1109
01:12:15,800 --> 01:12:18,279
Baha and you see the burst for
microphile and the Packycormus diice color going out

1110
01:12:18,279 --> 01:12:23,479
of the big granite boulders and like, you know, they're they're much more

1111
01:12:23,600 --> 01:12:28,319
like trees. But then you get
onto this island and these things are it's

1112
01:12:28,359 --> 01:12:31,760
like as if somebody came with a
hydraulic press and just smashed the tree so

1113
01:12:31,800 --> 01:12:34,760
that it wasn't any higher than like
a foot and a half. Yeah,

1114
01:12:34,800 --> 01:12:40,199
man, I've seen I've seen that
same shit in the serpentine areas of BCS.

1115
01:12:40,199 --> 01:12:43,920
It's that species is so weird,
man, it can be you know,

1116
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:46,119
two diameters breast heider, it can
You could see a plant that just

1117
01:12:46,319 --> 01:12:50,439
crawls, you know, along the
ground that looks all crumbholtzed and and shit,

1118
01:12:50,479 --> 01:12:54,960
it's wild. It's wild. It's
so plastic. It's cool to see

1119
01:12:54,960 --> 01:12:58,479
too. Then taking like, okay, so what's causing that there? Right?

1120
01:12:58,880 --> 01:13:00,800
It's the wind. It's the entire
it's wind. It's constantly pelted with

1121
01:13:00,840 --> 01:13:03,720
wind, so no branches can grow
up, right because it just gets snapped

1122
01:13:03,760 --> 01:13:08,159
off, like it's serious wind.
Right, Yeah, yeah, I know.

1123
01:13:08,359 --> 01:13:11,520
Take those plants and you grow them
in cultivation and you just let them

1124
01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:15,520
do their thing. They're going to
grow tall and lanky. However, if

1125
01:13:15,880 --> 01:13:19,239
you come in and I'm doing it
right now to burst receive things that I

1126
01:13:19,239 --> 01:13:23,760
have where I literally I'm opening the
lid to the little container where they're in

1127
01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:26,960
the probably less than a month and
a half hold, and I just every

1128
01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:29,359
time it tries to sprout again at
the top, I just pinch it.

1129
01:13:30,920 --> 01:13:34,000
I don't let it grow any taller. Yeah, over time they'll start to

1130
01:13:34,039 --> 01:13:39,039
fatten up yeah, it's like this
sort im it's the same thing. You'll

1131
01:13:39,079 --> 01:13:41,319
see it, you know, on
mountaintops, like you'll see with like white

1132
01:13:41,319 --> 01:13:45,560
bark pine at like fucking you know, shit, seven thousand feet in the

1133
01:13:45,760 --> 01:13:48,079
Sisky Mountains or something. It's fucking
nuts, man, It's really cool,

1134
01:13:48,119 --> 01:13:51,039
like right on right on like a
slope like where they get blasted with wind.

1135
01:13:51,079 --> 01:13:55,159
But I wonder if any of those
populations, because there are there's a

1136
01:13:55,199 --> 01:13:57,800
couple of different varieties of pack of
cormers. I think I wonder if any

1137
01:13:57,800 --> 01:14:00,279
of those populations, you know,
do stay true to form, like if

1138
01:14:00,319 --> 01:14:05,039
it's not just if it's not just
phenotypic, like if it's actually like they

1139
01:14:05,039 --> 01:14:09,439
all the whole population grows like that, you know, or if it's just

1140
01:14:09,439 --> 01:14:11,840
because I mean, who knows.
I know, I know they're for sure.

1141
01:14:11,880 --> 01:14:16,600
There are two like on the oh
god, I can't think of the

1142
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:21,239
island right now, but there's one
particular island that has a pink flower PACKI

1143
01:14:21,319 --> 01:14:26,640
chormas, Oh wow, something with
something for that, probably hummers or something,

1144
01:14:26,680 --> 01:14:29,600
I would guess maybe. I mean, so I know there's those two

1145
01:14:29,720 --> 01:14:32,680
varieties. I don't you know.
I know that in the as far as

1146
01:14:32,720 --> 01:14:36,560
it goes. There's no like,
there's no different varieties for those different forms.

1147
01:14:36,560 --> 01:14:41,199
It's just kind of I mean,
the way I see this is probably

1148
01:14:41,239 --> 01:14:45,199
more environmental. I think I didn't
you know, I never saw seed on

1149
01:14:45,239 --> 01:14:49,880
a packa chormas ever, but I
did collect some bursra seed, and they

1150
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:54,039
don't seem to do They kind of
just grow like burs grow, you know.

1151
01:14:54,600 --> 01:15:00,920
They just in cultivation, they tend
to just climb and get tall,

1152
01:15:00,439 --> 01:15:03,399
you know. So if you if
you're growing them though, you can keep

1153
01:15:03,439 --> 01:15:09,039
them short and they'll it'll take longer, but they'll eventually start to fatten up

1154
01:15:09,039 --> 01:15:12,880
and stay short. Another another thing
that's about about packet cormus too is that

1155
01:15:12,920 --> 01:15:15,920
you know, obviously, like the
northern part of Baja is on a California

1156
01:15:15,159 --> 01:15:19,880
rain regime, like California Mohabi rain
regime, like you know, winter rain

1157
01:15:20,439 --> 01:15:25,560
generally summer dry they get. If
they get rain in the summer, it's

1158
01:15:25,600 --> 01:15:30,000
like normally a downpour versus rain in
the winter is normally like a drizzly you

1159
01:15:30,039 --> 01:15:32,439
know, it'll just stay cool and
wet for for days. But but then

1160
01:15:32,479 --> 01:15:35,079
in the south of the island it's
more akin to mainland Mexico. We have

1161
01:15:35,119 --> 01:15:40,680
summer rain in winter dry, and
it's a it's you know, it's like

1162
01:15:40,720 --> 01:15:43,600
how I wonder how that is affected. They're like the tuopi, how different

1163
01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:47,039
the two populations are if they're how
it selects, how the you know,

1164
01:15:47,039 --> 01:15:51,439
the different rain regime selects for the
populations too. Because it's so widespread.

1165
01:15:51,479 --> 01:15:55,159
It's like it's like pakisiris Brinley.
It's like cardones, you know, which

1166
01:15:55,199 --> 01:15:59,399
you get in the northeast south as
well. But it's amazing too that it

1167
01:15:59,399 --> 01:16:02,159
doesn't there's no it doesn't grow anywhere
else other than bah Like, I think

1168
01:16:02,159 --> 01:16:05,600
that's one of the coolest things.
And I mean I said it in one

1169
01:16:05,640 --> 01:16:09,840
of my videos. It's like we
have our own little sikotra right there.

1170
01:16:10,239 --> 01:16:13,319
Yeah, it's like cool to see
that. And yeah, I haven't even

1171
01:16:13,319 --> 01:16:16,119
been all the way south. There's
there's a lot of species of Mammalaria in

1172
01:16:16,159 --> 01:16:20,840
particular, they grow like all the
way down Schumanni I and some of the

1173
01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:24,760
others that I would love to see. I just haven't had the haven't had

1174
01:16:24,800 --> 01:16:27,680
the opportunity I have been. The
last time I was there was like twenty

1175
01:16:27,760 --> 01:16:30,479
seventeen, and I was My interests
in terms of plants were nowhere near as

1176
01:16:30,520 --> 01:16:32,800
broad as they are now. Where
Now I'm like, fuck, I gotta

1177
01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:36,079
take pictures of everything, even like
little liver wars and shit, whereas you

1178
01:16:36,079 --> 01:16:40,199
know and log it and find out
what species it is. Whereas like back

1179
01:16:40,239 --> 01:16:42,560
then I was, I was a
little more restrict than in terms of this

1180
01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:45,399
shit that I cared about. But
I came across a little patch of liver

1181
01:16:45,479 --> 01:16:50,880
works the other day. I dude, I was like blown away by these

1182
01:16:50,920 --> 01:16:56,760
things, man, Like it just
looked like very small little micro habitat,

1183
01:16:56,920 --> 01:17:00,039
like off this hiking trail in Ventura, ca here. But I was like,

1184
01:17:00,079 --> 01:17:02,000
looking at it, I'm like,
man, you got Dudley Is and

1185
01:17:02,039 --> 01:17:05,319
all these little ferns, and they're
so cool. They're fucking wild. Man.

1186
01:17:05,560 --> 01:17:10,520
They a different planet. It's like
a totally different planet. They can

1187
01:17:10,600 --> 01:17:13,520
dry out, they don't have a
vascular system. They've got it, you

1188
01:17:13,560 --> 01:17:15,800
know, they're they spread by spores, so they get around a lot easier.

1189
01:17:15,840 --> 01:17:19,399
But then they're a lot more restricted
and where they can grow, and

1190
01:17:19,439 --> 01:17:24,840
they just it's they're fucking nuts.
And like the the sporal fights, you

1191
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:27,319
know, they've got the whole alternation
of generations. Get me to fight and

1192
01:17:27,319 --> 01:17:30,079
Spora fight and the fucking thallis that
looks almost like a like a like a

1193
01:17:30,359 --> 01:17:34,600
wet lichen versus the Spora fight that
ends up looking like a little umbrella.

1194
01:17:35,359 --> 01:17:39,560
You know. Yeah, there's I
feel like I could do a prime around

1195
01:17:39,640 --> 01:17:43,479
like alternation of generations, explain to
myself what they like, read up on

1196
01:17:43,520 --> 01:17:46,079
it, because I always forget like
once a year. You know, at

1197
01:17:46,159 --> 01:17:49,079
least with liverwarts, they're so fucking
weird. They're so weird, and I'm

1198
01:17:49,399 --> 01:17:55,039
seeing some really weird ones in Chile. Yeah, man, I don't know

1199
01:17:55,079 --> 01:17:58,439
that. Yeah that, I mean, they're fucking endemism of Baja's nuts.

1200
01:17:58,479 --> 01:18:00,960
I went like with pack of cormerce, I wonder is it you know,

1201
01:18:00,279 --> 01:18:04,079
the peninsula's been separated from the mainland
like five or six million years ever since

1202
01:18:04,119 --> 01:18:09,760
the San Andreas opened it up,
right, So does like things like packet

1203
01:18:09,800 --> 01:18:13,760
kormas like when they don't if if
they don't occur on the mainland, is

1204
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:16,359
that because like there was a climatic
difference, or did they just evolve that

1205
01:18:16,479 --> 01:18:19,479
much more recently, like within the
last five or six million years and become

1206
01:18:19,520 --> 01:18:24,039
restricted. Was was the population at
one point larger and then they because there's

1207
01:18:24,159 --> 01:18:27,720
there's boot jump trees on a little
island of Sonora, or not island,

1208
01:18:27,720 --> 01:18:31,239
but a little patch of Sonora too. It's just you know, it's not

1209
01:18:31,279 --> 01:18:34,600
a behindemic, but yeah, that
whole the whole fucking region is so cool.

1210
01:18:34,680 --> 01:18:40,560
I I'd love to spend some time
on the west coast of mainland Mexico

1211
01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:44,399
sometime. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I I swear,

1212
01:18:44,439 --> 01:18:46,279
man, I think I could.
I could just go like and perpetually travel

1213
01:18:46,520 --> 01:18:50,600
Mexico. I love Mexico. People
are like I always ask me when I'm

1214
01:18:50,600 --> 01:18:55,279
gonna go to Chile, and I
I will go eventually. But there's just

1215
01:18:56,000 --> 01:19:00,239
the amount of stuff that you see
on any trip in Mexico is just so

1216
01:19:00,399 --> 01:19:03,720
much, Like there's just so much
more. Yeah, it's super diverse.

1217
01:19:03,720 --> 01:19:06,039
It's so fucking diverse, man.
I was like, and it can be

1218
01:19:06,039 --> 01:19:10,880
overwhelming too going to to new places. That's what I felt like, if

1219
01:19:10,960 --> 01:19:13,119
you know, when I was doing
South Africa videos, I was like,

1220
01:19:13,159 --> 01:19:15,479
man, I have to stop,
Like it's too much. I can't,

1221
01:19:15,199 --> 01:19:17,920
you know, There's like just too
much to keep tracks. There's too much

1222
01:19:17,960 --> 01:19:23,039
to keep track of, Like every
different fucking hill is a different plant community

1223
01:19:23,039 --> 01:19:30,359
on it like different species different in
South Africa, like like three weeks about

1224
01:19:30,439 --> 01:19:32,239
I'm going through that part of the
book right now too, and I'm like,

1225
01:19:32,399 --> 01:19:35,000
fuck Jesus, like what how do
I feel bad leaving anything out?

1226
01:19:35,039 --> 01:19:41,319
Like the aloes lacanalias, the fucking
Hawarthia that we saw, you know,

1227
01:19:41,640 --> 01:19:46,079
there's the fucking the the uh not. They call them beatle daisies, but

1228
01:19:46,119 --> 01:19:51,319
they're not. They're those members of
Astraci that mimic kpe beeflies because that's their

1229
01:19:51,319 --> 01:19:55,800
pollinator. Like, it's the fucking
weirdest thing I've seen. Like these the

1230
01:19:56,279 --> 01:20:00,760
flowers have like embossments on them where
they're mimicking a female beef like because it's

1231
01:20:00,760 --> 01:20:03,079
a male b fly that pollinates.
And it's the fucking coolest. It's one

1232
01:20:03,079 --> 01:20:06,159
of the coolest cases of co evolution
I've ever seen. Like this needs to

1233
01:20:06,199 --> 01:20:11,279
be in in ah I guess it
wouldn't be co evolution, but you know,

1234
01:20:11,319 --> 01:20:14,960
specialist pollinators like that needs to be
in bondmy textbooks. So it's yeah,

1235
01:20:14,960 --> 01:20:18,520
it's it's it's super overwhelming. You
know, I've taken more photos in

1236
01:20:18,520 --> 01:20:24,000
South Africa than any other place I've
been to, but I believe it I

1237
01:20:24,039 --> 01:20:26,520
mean, dude, it's it's got
a three week trip. I can't even

1238
01:20:26,520 --> 01:20:30,880
imagine how many gigabytes and footage you
had that it gets too much. It's

1239
01:20:30,920 --> 01:20:32,600
like it's too much after a while, Like fuck, I gotta leave,

1240
01:20:32,680 --> 01:20:34,760
Like I can't. I'm not gonna
be able to remember this, you know.

1241
01:20:34,800 --> 01:20:38,880
Like That's what I use I naturals
for primarily now, is to remember

1242
01:20:38,920 --> 01:20:42,000
shit. This is like a log
of everything I've seen, you know,

1243
01:20:42,079 --> 01:20:45,520
like the same way someone like a
botanist forty years ago might have kept like

1244
01:20:45,520 --> 01:20:49,039
a you know, a notebook of
you know, on a different trip,

1245
01:20:49,119 --> 01:20:53,239
or a barium vouchers or something.
It's the same thing I use it for.

1246
01:20:53,439 --> 01:20:56,279
So you don't. You don't have
like a GPS thing to you ease,

1247
01:20:57,359 --> 01:21:00,920
No, I mean, I just
I use I use this snapbridge app

1248
01:21:00,960 --> 01:21:02,560
through Nikon, which works. I
mean, you got to. It'll fuck

1249
01:21:02,640 --> 01:21:05,239
up sometimes you have to check and
make sure the GPS is accurate, but

1250
01:21:05,239 --> 01:21:11,600
it'll it'll GEO tag the photos for
you, and then I'll I'll keep records

1251
01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:15,279
too, of like GPS coordinates and
where I've where I've logged everything. I

1252
01:21:15,319 --> 01:21:18,560
obscure everything I put on I Naturalists
now, unless I want someone to go

1253
01:21:18,600 --> 01:21:21,920
there, like to collect seed,
Like if it's a you know, abundant

1254
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:26,479
species, but it's not well studied
and there's not a lot of it in

1255
01:21:26,479 --> 01:21:29,159
cultivation. I'm like, oh,
like I did that, would like prunus

1256
01:21:29,199 --> 01:21:32,880
text saying it it fucking sandsheet apricot. That what I was calling the Texas

1257
01:21:32,880 --> 01:21:36,199
almond. But it's actually more closely
related to apricots. It's a really cool

1258
01:21:36,239 --> 01:21:40,920
fucking plant. It's not in cultivation. It's loaded with fruit. Like,

1259
01:21:40,960 --> 01:21:43,800
no one's gonna go out there and
poach a fucking, you know, four

1260
01:21:43,840 --> 01:21:47,039
foot tall shrub. So that's something
I like, I want people to go

1261
01:21:47,079 --> 01:21:49,720
collect fruit of. So like I'll
leave that open. It's like, yeah,

1262
01:21:49,760 --> 01:21:53,159
go out there, there's nothing else. It's like poachable I want.

1263
01:21:53,319 --> 01:21:57,119
But generally I obscure locations on everything, just because I don't want people.

1264
01:21:57,359 --> 01:22:00,560
I want to cover my tracks,
you know, I don't want people lurking

1265
01:22:00,640 --> 01:22:04,079
where I've been, you know,
unless they're you know. It's just yeah,

1266
01:22:04,079 --> 01:22:06,840
it's just the way to like filter
it out. But that's how I

1267
01:22:06,880 --> 01:22:11,760
mainly keep track of everything, Like
I use Iinaturalists mostly for myself, Like

1268
01:22:11,960 --> 01:22:15,279
just it's so fucking useful like I
cause I can be like, Okay,

1269
01:22:15,319 --> 01:22:21,479
I can't remember I can't remember the
genus I saw in Chile. That's related.

1270
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:26,279
It's the sister family to astor Ace, but I can't remember the genus.

1271
01:22:26,319 --> 01:22:28,680
I can't even remember the family and
output. But you can type in

1272
01:22:28,920 --> 01:22:33,359
order family like any taxonomic level into
your I Naturalist account and then put Chile,

1273
01:22:33,600 --> 01:22:35,920
and so I'm like, okay,
Asta raileys, it's in the astor

1274
01:22:36,079 --> 01:22:40,640
order. I can't remember the family. Okay, Oh Callisseracey. It'll pop

1275
01:22:40,720 --> 01:22:44,000
up and you know it's got taxonomy
charts on there. It's super fucking useful.

1276
01:22:45,239 --> 01:22:46,359
Yeah. I haven't really used it
very much. I mean, uh,

1277
01:22:47,520 --> 01:22:53,560
I have always just kind of felt
a little extra wary I think of

1278
01:22:53,640 --> 01:22:58,760
putting anything like I I recently was
at somebody's house that they'ret their plants and

1279
01:22:58,760 --> 01:23:01,520
they had an old, old tag
from the Huntington and the fucking the plant

1280
01:23:01,520 --> 01:23:05,960
tag basically had damn near the GPS
coordinates on it for the plant, you

1281
01:23:05,960 --> 01:23:10,159
know, And I was like,
Wow, you definitely can't do that anymore,

1282
01:23:10,239 --> 01:23:13,800
you know. And I'll get people
with no way, man, No,

1283
01:23:13,960 --> 01:23:15,840
I mean people will ask me like, hey, can you like,

1284
01:23:15,920 --> 01:23:19,119
let me know how to get to
see this, and it depends on what

1285
01:23:19,199 --> 01:23:21,760
it is. I mean, ninety
nine percent of the time, I'm going

1286
01:23:21,840 --> 01:23:28,199
to say I can't do that.
You know. It's just because there's not

1287
01:23:28,239 --> 01:23:30,640
a lot of those things there,
and I don't you know, you may

1288
01:23:30,640 --> 01:23:33,359
be trustworthy, but you may not
have the greatest judgement. Show it to

1289
01:23:33,399 --> 01:23:36,479
your friend. Yeah, someone else
learns it, and then it's then I

1290
01:23:36,560 --> 01:23:39,720
come back in three years and it's
gone. You know, I watched that

1291
01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:44,520
happen with Aero Karpus Scaffeostris. Yeah. I mean I think I don't know

1292
01:23:44,600 --> 01:23:47,319
how people find I think people already
knew, you know, it's pretty easy.

1293
01:23:47,399 --> 01:23:50,079
Someone showed someone. But I went
back and they were all gone except

1294
01:23:50,119 --> 01:23:53,960
for two plants. It was fucking
wild, like they were all excavated,

1295
01:23:54,640 --> 01:23:58,079
you know. But I've once well, I found holes for sure. I

1296
01:23:58,079 --> 01:24:02,359
mean I when we were at a
particular site in Koela in the mudflats,

1297
01:24:02,399 --> 01:24:08,279
like there were several holes, you
know, and you're looking at them like

1298
01:24:08,319 --> 01:24:12,399
the way that they and there they're
holes where people doug loafs, you know.

1299
01:24:12,479 --> 01:24:15,039
I mean that's just But now someone's
got a really nice collection. They've

1300
01:24:15,159 --> 01:24:18,159
just expanded their collection. Right,
where did most of shit go? You

1301
01:24:18,199 --> 01:24:20,920
think? Is it mostly overseas?
I mean where I would assume it's like

1302
01:24:21,000 --> 01:24:27,000
Europe or Asia, like Eastern Europe
or Asia, Like where's the market big?

1303
01:24:27,039 --> 01:24:29,359
Because like it's it's seel ross.
You know, they get all the

1304
01:24:29,399 --> 01:24:33,079
intercepted plants, the customs catches,
and they're all going overseas. I wish

1305
01:24:33,199 --> 01:24:35,800
I wish I had access to the
data of where they were going, because

1306
01:24:35,800 --> 01:24:42,319
I remember I've seen some fucking white
like Pelasifra's Aerocarpus, Bravoanus, you know,

1307
01:24:42,880 --> 01:24:46,199
like buckets of these things. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy.

1308
01:24:46,239 --> 01:24:49,600
I've been places here in Los Angeles
where you walk in and you're like,

1309
01:24:50,640 --> 01:24:54,680
what the fuck, Like, wow, this looks like one of those like

1310
01:24:54,800 --> 01:24:58,520
photos you know, like you see
online where it's just just you know,

1311
01:24:58,600 --> 01:25:01,000
a couple hundred pack of podiums with
the fung just side, you know,

1312
01:25:01,159 --> 01:25:03,720
painted on the bottom of them,
just sitting there with no roots. You're

1313
01:25:03,760 --> 01:25:09,680
like, oh, Okay, So
I don't know, man, I'd say

1314
01:25:09,720 --> 01:25:15,279
it's it's probably it's probably uh it's
going all over you know, I know,

1315
01:25:15,479 --> 01:25:19,680
I know, I know there's certainly
an illicit market. Here, there's

1316
01:25:19,720 --> 01:25:26,079
no doubt about that. There's a
completely different culture about it. In Japan.

1317
01:25:27,479 --> 01:25:30,600
They's just not looked at it the
same way. You know. Like

1318
01:25:30,680 --> 01:25:34,000
I had a conversation with a friend
of mine from Japan and was asking,

1319
01:25:34,119 --> 01:25:36,960
I said, you know, what
is kind of the thought process, because

1320
01:25:38,560 --> 01:25:45,680
it's clearly there's a different mindset towards
collecting plants and you know, like particularly

1321
01:25:45,720 --> 01:25:47,079
talking about copiapoa, and he said
that, like a lot of people here,

1322
01:25:47,199 --> 01:25:51,319
the way they see it is like
those plants are for all intensitive purposes.

1323
01:25:51,319 --> 01:25:57,000
They're already extinct in habitat. I
mean they're not there's zero recruitment,

1324
01:25:57,159 --> 01:26:01,119
The plants are not growing. They
are pretty much just dying. Like it's

1325
01:26:01,159 --> 01:26:05,239
just that's all the plants are doing. There is dying, with a few

1326
01:26:05,399 --> 01:26:10,520
exceptions on a few populations. So
to them, they're like, we're saving

1327
01:26:10,520 --> 01:26:13,439
the plants. So it's kind of
like, man, that's so wed,

1328
01:26:13,479 --> 01:26:15,840
Like they're not fucking a collegist and
not doing population studies, you know,

1329
01:26:15,920 --> 01:26:19,199
Like that's the thing is like I
don't know, I don't know, but

1330
01:26:19,239 --> 01:26:23,520
I mean people have the same mentality
here in Texas, and I kind of

1331
01:26:23,640 --> 01:26:26,279
I guess I kind of get it. But I would trust someone that was

1332
01:26:26,600 --> 01:26:30,359
actually from the place that they're taking
stuff from more than I would trust some

1333
01:26:30,079 --> 01:26:32,840
you know, somebody with an ulterior
motive that wants it in their selection.

1334
01:26:32,920 --> 01:26:38,159
I guess, well, I think
that you know, from my understanding,

1335
01:26:38,560 --> 01:26:42,560
Chile is getting hotter and drier.
I mean, it's not like just poaching

1336
01:26:42,640 --> 01:26:46,039
is the number one issue. I
mean you mentioned Fokiria purpose I I mean,

1337
01:26:46,159 --> 01:26:51,079
like the site that we went to
go see these plants in Wahaka,

1338
01:26:51,159 --> 01:26:55,119
I mean, god, it was
one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever

1339
01:26:55,159 --> 01:27:00,800
seen. You're driving then suddenly the
road just turns red like so you're like

1340
01:27:00,840 --> 01:27:03,000
you're in Sedona all of a sudden, you know. And then you get

1341
01:27:03,079 --> 01:27:06,960
up to this you know, outcrop, this ridge, and you get up

1342
01:27:08,239 --> 01:27:12,039
to where the limestone is, and
these things are growing way at the top

1343
01:27:12,079 --> 01:27:15,640
of this limestone, and you know, you're looking at these things, like

1344
01:27:15,680 --> 01:27:18,359
you said, with a lot of
reverence, like these are just these majestic,

1345
01:27:18,560 --> 01:27:21,560
ancient plants, like god, who
knows how old they are. And

1346
01:27:21,600 --> 01:27:24,800
then the guy that took us there's
like, yeah, man, he's like

1347
01:27:24,840 --> 01:27:27,760
there's a pile down at that we
passed it because you can't even tell anymore.

1348
01:27:27,760 --> 01:27:31,319
He goes, but they they recently
just destroyed seven big, like twenty

1349
01:27:31,319 --> 01:27:38,039
foot tall ones. They're mining marble. Get this stuff, get this stuff

1350
01:27:38,119 --> 01:27:40,279
up the way. It's cent away. We got to get That's what it's

1351
01:27:40,279 --> 01:27:43,119
like done. That's what it's like
in South Texas, man. I mean,

1352
01:27:43,399 --> 01:27:45,880
like when the border wall went up, there were so many old payot

1353
01:27:45,960 --> 01:27:48,920
There were a lot of payota that
were saved and moved. I mean now

1354
01:27:48,960 --> 01:27:53,920
they're like, I'm kind of questionable
property. They're just on who knows what

1355
01:27:53,960 --> 01:27:56,640
will happened but where they got moved
to. But you know, there was

1356
01:27:56,840 --> 01:28:00,680
so many more that were not able
to be saved that we just got demolished.

1357
01:28:00,720 --> 01:28:03,600
It was it was nuts. It
was fucking you know, and tons

1358
01:28:03,680 --> 01:28:09,000
of other cool speeches and Sistro cactus, Thelo cactus. Just I got a

1359
01:28:09,079 --> 01:28:13,560
nice photo of a Thelo cactus just
squashed in a fucking tire tread of a

1360
01:28:13,560 --> 01:28:15,760
bulldozer. Like just mind blowing shit. Man. I was like, this

1361
01:28:15,800 --> 01:28:19,359
is this is criminal, this is
this is insane. It really is a

1362
01:28:19,399 --> 01:28:23,399
death cult. But I mean,
yeah, poaching is not the main thing,

1363
01:28:24,119 --> 01:28:27,359
but it's it's certainly up there with
at least with plants like this.

1364
01:28:27,479 --> 01:28:30,000
You know, I remember I with
just orchids. I remember being a wahaka

1365
01:28:30,039 --> 01:28:33,359
once and seeing this dude just selling, you know, epidendroids that he had

1366
01:28:33,439 --> 01:28:38,159
he had plucked off of a of
trees, Like he had a milk crate

1367
01:28:38,239 --> 01:28:42,479
full of epidendroid you know that subfamily, all the epiphytic ones orchids. He

1368
01:28:42,520 --> 01:28:45,520
was like, fuck man, it
was like Jesus Christ is like, no

1369
01:28:45,680 --> 01:28:47,439
shame. But yeah. But then
you know, here's the other Like,

1370
01:28:47,479 --> 01:28:50,119
here's the flip side of that,
right. You like that you drive through

1371
01:28:50,159 --> 01:28:55,000
the TABLECM biasphere, right, which
is it's a you know, quote unquote

1372
01:28:55,000 --> 01:29:00,319
protected biasphere reserve, and you know
there are like, uh, these massive

1373
01:29:01,680 --> 01:29:09,680
spots where they've cleared the desert to
grow agaves for mescal. Yeah, yeah,

1374
01:29:09,920 --> 01:29:12,880
in the deep in these these places, and you're like, wow,

1375
01:29:13,399 --> 01:29:16,840
I mean it's it's just it's kind
of a weird thing, Like I mean,

1376
01:29:17,319 --> 01:29:20,560
that's you know, that's how they're
doing it. I definitely think I

1377
01:29:20,640 --> 01:29:26,680
definitely think habitat destruction is the big
I always say that it's almost just as

1378
01:29:26,800 --> 01:29:30,039
much if not more of a threat
than climate change, because climate change is

1379
01:29:30,079 --> 01:29:34,279
still I mean it's going fast,
but it's still a slower process than it

1380
01:29:34,359 --> 01:29:38,000
is. Just go in there and
just bulldoze things overnight, you know.

1381
01:29:38,840 --> 01:29:43,079
Well, so, like my buddies
had gone on a trip down. I

1382
01:29:43,119 --> 01:29:45,479
didn't get to go to it,
and they went, we're looking at like

1383
01:29:46,119 --> 01:29:51,359
all the areas, you know,
all through northern northeast Mexico, and one

1384
01:29:51,439 --> 01:29:57,479
site I forget whether it was Kachi
bian Us or something. They said they

1385
01:29:57,479 --> 01:30:00,680
were there. They photographed all the
plants, and then like within a week

1386
01:30:01,119 --> 01:30:05,239
they went back to take some more
pictures. The entire area had been cleared.

1387
01:30:05,760 --> 01:30:10,640
No more plans like Oxo coming soon
or fucking Walmart or something like.

1388
01:30:10,680 --> 01:30:14,279
It's it's it's a certain point.
It's like a fucking Simpsons episode, Like

1389
01:30:14,319 --> 01:30:17,640
it's so cynical, you know,
It's like it's just it's like fucking so

1390
01:30:18,760 --> 01:30:24,640
dark, it's almost hilarious. It's
like this is so obscene in fucking nuts

1391
01:30:25,239 --> 01:30:29,479
and just kind of like the behaviors
of like a sociopathic civilization. I don't

1392
01:30:29,479 --> 01:30:33,479
feel bad or sociopathic elements of a
civilization. I don't feel bad calling it

1393
01:30:33,560 --> 01:30:38,960
that either because it is it's these
aren't people that the think this way.

1394
01:30:38,880 --> 01:30:42,920
They don't have the same value system. I think that's why this shit is

1395
01:30:43,079 --> 01:30:46,319
like what you do is good.
You get people just started off on this

1396
01:30:46,359 --> 01:30:50,239
shit, whether just growing for hobby
or whatever, and it ends up opening

1397
01:30:50,319 --> 01:30:55,560
up it's a gateway drug to a
larger perspective and a reverence. And that's

1398
01:30:55,600 --> 01:30:57,840
the same shit I was talking about
too with like why I think this the

1399
01:30:57,920 --> 01:31:01,239
demographic of people getting into this shit
now is it's different than it was like

1400
01:31:01,279 --> 01:31:03,840
then these old guys that were and
no offense to a lot of those old

1401
01:31:03,880 --> 01:31:08,119
guys are fucking awesome. They grow
amazing plants. But there was certainly it

1402
01:31:08,199 --> 01:31:11,439
was. It was a different time
though too back then, whereas like there

1403
01:31:11,520 --> 01:31:14,520
was still a lot of habitat left
and like, oh dig a couple plants,

1404
01:31:14,560 --> 01:31:16,840
not that bad. But it's funny
though you still have some of those

1405
01:31:16,880 --> 01:31:23,000
like old timers that still propagate that
kind of narrative where it's like it's okay

1406
01:31:23,039 --> 01:31:25,720
to dig up three or four of
this if you want for yourself. It's

1407
01:31:25,760 --> 01:31:28,760
like, dude, you can't tell
that to a group of people anymore,

1408
01:31:28,800 --> 01:31:31,279
Like you can't tell that to a
group of people anymore, like you could

1409
01:31:31,319 --> 01:31:35,039
you could tell, uh, you
know a person that you knew well,

1410
01:31:35,119 --> 01:31:38,479
Like, hey, look, if
you want to take a pad of a

1411
01:31:38,520 --> 01:31:42,600
Puntia basslaris, like you know,
you're probably okay, You're not gonna damage

1412
01:31:42,640 --> 01:31:45,119
anything. You're not gonna hurt you. You're not. You're not disrupting the

1413
01:31:45,279 --> 01:31:47,000
environment, you know what I mean. You collect a seed pod off of

1414
01:31:47,079 --> 01:31:51,600
agave u tian sis, you're not. You're not throwing the whole environment out

1415
01:31:51,600 --> 01:31:56,680
of whack. Where where that changes
is when you come in and you just

1416
01:31:56,720 --> 01:32:01,800
start cutting spikes off them and you've
got a bag, you go, you

1417
01:32:01,880 --> 01:32:05,800
go dig like fucking you know,
a truck a truck bed full of a

1418
01:32:05,800 --> 01:32:10,920
gay. And since there was some
dude in Arizona doing that, I couldn't

1419
01:32:10,920 --> 01:32:13,079
believe it. I was like,
this is fucking obscene. But that's what's

1420
01:32:13,119 --> 01:32:16,279
cool is like this this generation people
who's into it now that ship is it's

1421
01:32:16,359 --> 01:32:21,000
fucks like people don't they're not,
you know, there there's like a like

1422
01:32:21,039 --> 01:32:25,920
a strong anti poaching mentality and people
talk about it and it's fucking cool.

1423
01:32:25,960 --> 01:32:28,600
I mean, there was some dude. There was some dude in North Texas

1424
01:32:28,640 --> 01:32:32,880
who was selling plants. He was
buying off someone in jim Webb County and

1425
01:32:32,880 --> 01:32:36,239
and then selling them as I mean, when he was selling them like he

1426
01:32:36,359 --> 01:32:40,079
was trying to say that, oh
they're from Europe, Like they totally weren't.

1427
01:32:40,119 --> 01:32:42,880
They were weathered, they were cut, they were dug. But like

1428
01:32:43,000 --> 01:32:45,840
the fact he was trying to conceal
it almost I mean, in this way,

1429
01:32:45,880 --> 01:32:48,079
it was kind of indicative of like, yeah, he knows, like

1430
01:32:48,439 --> 01:32:54,079
this ship isn't socially it's socially looked
down upon now where it was kind of

1431
01:32:54,119 --> 01:32:59,880
like tolerated thirty years. Isn't it
like a guilty mind state? It's like

1432
01:33:00,239 --> 01:33:03,479
Zreea, let's say the mind's state
of guilt. Yeah you know, yeah,

1433
01:33:03,600 --> 01:33:05,479
yeah, yeah yeah. I wrote
the dude and I was like,

1434
01:33:05,479 --> 01:33:08,960
listen, man, this you don't
want to do this, like you don't

1435
01:33:08,960 --> 01:33:11,920
want to get a reputation as this. He just fucking left me on red

1436
01:33:11,920 --> 01:33:15,760
and ignore me. But whatever,
maybe he'll maybe he'll listen. I get

1437
01:33:15,800 --> 01:33:18,600
it. Maybe people it's tempting,
you know, but I don't know.

1438
01:33:18,720 --> 01:33:21,640
I don't know. I mean,
who knows. It's it's you know,

1439
01:33:21,760 --> 01:33:27,039
it's it's I think for me that
it's like the thought like I have.

1440
01:33:27,680 --> 01:33:31,600
Look, I'd be lying if I
said I never was tempted, you know.

1441
01:33:31,840 --> 01:33:35,000
But like, dude, like with
these agaves, these things are growing

1442
01:33:35,159 --> 01:33:40,880
like literally growing out of a crack
in the limestone that wasn't even a crack

1443
01:33:40,960 --> 01:33:44,439
when they sprouted. They made it
the crack over their lifetime, you know

1444
01:33:44,439 --> 01:33:46,399
what I mean. Yeah, to
think about like what you would have to

1445
01:33:46,399 --> 01:33:50,319
do to get that out of there, it's just like I just don't think

1446
01:33:50,920 --> 01:33:56,119
it's it's not for me, you
know. I mean I felt very conflicted.

1447
01:33:56,159 --> 01:33:59,600
Actually, I was in I was
in Wahaka. We were looking at

1448
01:33:59,600 --> 01:34:01,800
a site where we were looking at
the Gaveo Taro eye. But at that

1449
01:34:01,920 --> 01:34:08,039
site you had it's either it was
either Mammalaria tulache i or some kind of

1450
01:34:08,279 --> 01:34:11,960
a subspecies of crucider. But it
was definitely in that supertexta complex. And

1451
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:15,119
there was these too, I mean
they were all over where they were,

1452
01:34:15,159 --> 01:34:19,760
there was tons and tons of them. And as we started getting a little

1453
01:34:19,880 --> 01:34:24,600
more onto the ridge and then kind
of getting down onto the goat trails,

1454
01:34:24,600 --> 01:34:29,279
which are these tiny thin little trails
on the steep, like you know,

1455
01:34:29,640 --> 01:34:32,800
sides of the ridge, there's all
these plants that have been hoofed out of

1456
01:34:32,800 --> 01:34:35,159
the ground, you know, little
ones. There's no big clumps, but

1457
01:34:35,199 --> 01:34:39,760
there's like there's little plants sitting there
bare root. Oh you would tell me

1458
01:34:39,840 --> 01:34:43,079
about this. They just got knocked
over by the cows or goats or whatever.

1459
01:34:43,159 --> 01:34:45,359
Yeah, I mean you see it
in Arizona too. We saw I

1460
01:34:45,359 --> 01:34:49,199
mean like a foot tall echino serious
rigidisimus that's sitting there that's been you know,

1461
01:34:49,359 --> 01:34:54,039
knocked over and just laying on the
grass. You know. It's like

1462
01:34:54,359 --> 01:34:56,760
you couldn't even take that thing back
though, and Rudy, it's too big.

1463
01:34:56,800 --> 01:35:00,560
It was almost likely would die for
sure. Yeah. Well, I

1464
01:35:00,560 --> 01:35:02,079
felt conflicted with these plants, Like
I was like, man, I feel

1465
01:35:02,079 --> 01:35:08,800
bad, Like I I felt like
the right thing to do would have been

1466
01:35:08,880 --> 01:35:14,039
to like take them, but that's
that's also not the legal thing to do,

1467
01:35:14,199 --> 01:35:16,560
and that's not something that I was
willing to do with jeopardize, Like

1468
01:35:16,600 --> 01:35:23,680
could you could you imagine like I
get arrested coming through the border with it

1469
01:35:23,760 --> 01:35:26,239
just wouldn't be wouldn't be a good
luck you know what I mean. So

1470
01:35:26,680 --> 01:35:30,119
it was like I feel ethically like
it was the right move to take them

1471
01:35:30,239 --> 01:35:34,520
but like, you know, for
the system we live in, that's how

1472
01:35:34,560 --> 01:35:36,680
I had to do it. And
I think I think some of the laws

1473
01:35:36,720 --> 01:35:41,479
probably could be changed that would help
protect the plants in habitat a little bit

1474
01:35:41,520 --> 01:35:44,720
better. But I mean, who
knows. I think the only real thing

1475
01:35:45,159 --> 01:35:50,159
that can affect that is just education, yeah, or you know people in

1476
01:35:50,199 --> 01:35:53,600
that case too. I mean I
think if there was like someone you knew

1477
01:35:53,640 --> 01:35:56,479
that lived in the region, who
would know what to do with them,

1478
01:35:56,520 --> 01:36:00,159
and like even just you know,
maybe that would be fine, like go

1479
01:36:00,319 --> 01:36:02,479
give it to them, you know, or like or a botanic garden or

1480
01:36:02,520 --> 01:36:08,079
like a fucking conservation garden or university
and be like, hey, these these

1481
01:36:08,119 --> 01:36:10,199
were on their way out. There
was no way to replant them. It's

1482
01:36:10,199 --> 01:36:13,000
a dry season, but you should
take these. And you know, if

1483
01:36:13,000 --> 01:36:15,560
there was, we were with it. Dude from the university, a botanist

1484
01:36:15,079 --> 01:36:20,920
from the university in Mexico City,
and actually he and Greg, one of

1485
01:36:20,960 --> 01:36:24,760
the guys I was with, they
actually had permits to collect, but they

1486
01:36:24,760 --> 01:36:29,520
were collecting flowers of agaveo taro line. Yeah see, and they can't get

1487
01:36:29,600 --> 01:36:30,359
caught with that shit either. It's
like, what do you do with these?

1488
01:36:30,399 --> 01:36:32,079
I mean, there's all the red
tape, you know, it would

1489
01:36:32,119 --> 01:36:35,439
it would definitely yeah, it'd be
like something you would do, you know,

1490
01:36:35,960 --> 01:36:39,359
underhand. Well that's what I was
kind of talking to them about with

1491
01:36:39,399 --> 01:36:44,319
those those Folkaria. I mean,
you know fokaria. Purpose I is,

1492
01:36:44,840 --> 01:36:48,119
you know, another slow growing plant's
a very desirable plant, like many people

1493
01:36:48,479 --> 01:36:51,000
like admire it and want it in
their collection and want to grow it.

1494
01:36:53,760 --> 01:36:57,720
And for a plant of any size, they're going to be years and years

1495
01:36:57,720 --> 01:37:00,800
and years old, and they go
for a lot. So it's like I'm

1496
01:37:00,800 --> 01:37:04,039
sitting there thinking to myself, like, man, you guys, the thousands

1497
01:37:04,039 --> 01:37:08,720
of cuttings that could have been taken
off those seven plants that were just bulldoze,

1498
01:37:08,720 --> 01:37:11,720
you know, and those plants could
have literally been driven in a truck

1499
01:37:11,800 --> 01:37:15,159
to my friend's house who lives probably
twenty minutes from there, who could have

1500
01:37:15,199 --> 01:37:18,079
planted them in the ground and at
least then made seed and made that seat

1501
01:37:18,119 --> 01:37:21,600
available. And like it's just but
it's not. I mean even even one

1502
01:37:21,640 --> 01:37:25,600
of those plants going up, like
if there was some mechanism for them to

1503
01:37:25,640 --> 01:37:29,199
be able to go up and be
auctioned off to benefit that community, I

1504
01:37:29,199 --> 01:37:32,199
mean, fucking ten twenty foot tall
for Carrie purpose, I would go for

1505
01:37:32,479 --> 01:37:36,680
you know, testlex or or at
least yeah, or end up in a

1506
01:37:36,720 --> 01:37:42,680
fucking you know, in a I
think like university botanic gardens in certain regions

1507
01:37:42,720 --> 01:37:46,319
would be that would be My idea
is like there was every university in a

1508
01:37:46,319 --> 01:37:51,920
certain region would have a botanic garden
dedicated to native plants, to conserving native

1509
01:37:51,960 --> 01:37:56,960
plants, to growing things that sit
to should the habitat get destroyed, like

1510
01:37:57,000 --> 01:38:00,199
that would be fucking ideal. It's
Mexico, sit, man, you know,

1511
01:38:00,279 --> 01:38:02,680
I'm in Mexico. Their botanic garden
there, even though it's i mean,

1512
01:38:02,720 --> 01:38:05,840
Mexico City is like seven thousand feet, it's like not a desert at

1513
01:38:05,840 --> 01:38:10,319
all. It's a fucking you know, it's like climate of San Francisco almost.

1514
01:38:10,600 --> 01:38:14,399
But there they grow a ship time. I mean, whoever's growing plants

1515
01:38:14,399 --> 01:38:17,199
at their greenhouses knows what they're doing
because in their little gift shop they've got

1516
01:38:17,239 --> 01:38:23,000
all these rare cacti for sale that
they I'm pretty sure that's I'm pretty sure

1517
01:38:23,079 --> 01:38:25,600
Jeremy's friends with that. The woman
that does that. No, it wouldn't

1518
01:38:25,600 --> 01:38:29,439
surprise me. Yeah, it's it's
fucking great it's really cool. There's a

1519
01:38:29,560 --> 01:38:33,479
there's a ship ton of awesome fucking
botanists in Mexico were doing really good stuff.

1520
01:38:34,720 --> 01:38:36,520
I live, so I need to
go down there more. I live

1521
01:38:36,640 --> 01:38:40,920
so close. I this fucking book
has been fucking with my I haven't traveled

1522
01:38:40,920 --> 01:38:43,520
in a while. Like we went
out. I took my daughter out to

1523
01:38:43,560 --> 01:38:45,720
a friend's land to go see the
eclipse, and I was like, goddamn,

1524
01:38:45,760 --> 01:38:48,960
Like to botanize again feels so good. Like not just strive to Star

1525
01:38:49,079 --> 01:38:53,760
County and you know, check on
like a you know, a friend's private

1526
01:38:53,840 --> 01:38:57,640
ranch where there's Payote and Starcac Disco, which is nice, but it's done

1527
01:38:57,680 --> 01:39:00,199
itt like forty five times now.
It's like, actually go out and see

1528
01:39:00,239 --> 01:39:02,439
new habitats and be like, whoa, what is this? Okay, I

1529
01:39:02,439 --> 01:39:06,039
can get it down to family or
genus, don't know species? What species?

1530
01:39:06,119 --> 01:39:10,000
You know that that kind of like
it's so it's so fun, man,

1531
01:39:10,119 --> 01:39:13,319
It's fucking yeah. I need that. Yeah, we should do it.

1532
01:39:13,359 --> 01:39:16,119
We should get we should I mean
yeah, I think you almost came

1533
01:39:16,199 --> 01:39:19,760
on the trip to to Koela.
You almost came on the trip to Wahaka.

1534
01:39:20,399 --> 01:39:23,920
We gotta get out there. One
of these days. Yeah. Yeah,

1535
01:39:23,920 --> 01:39:29,840
And I'm going to Mexico in June
with my friend Marco and and uh,

1536
01:39:30,199 --> 01:39:32,279
that guy one of the guys who's
on on a tour with Kevin right

1537
01:39:32,319 --> 01:39:36,359
now, I think too, oh
Gabe, Yeah, oh yeah, he's

1538
01:39:36,359 --> 01:39:39,760
fucking awesome. Yeah, I met
him at I met him in New York.

1539
01:39:39,960 --> 01:39:41,960
He's he was wearing like a Motorhead
shirt. I'm like, oh,

1540
01:39:42,000 --> 01:39:45,399
ship, you don't you don't really
see cactus people And that's cool man heavy

1541
01:39:45,439 --> 01:39:48,560
metal band, I know, That's
what I'm talking about. Like the fucking

1542
01:39:48,640 --> 01:39:53,399
generation of people who's into this now
is fucking It's cool. I love it.

1543
01:39:53,439 --> 01:39:57,239
I love seeing that there's the San
Antonio Crew. You know, it's

1544
01:39:57,279 --> 01:40:00,159
like all these like fucking Chicanos used
to write graffiti, who are fucking all

1545
01:40:00,199 --> 01:40:04,000
friends of mine who just like grow
a shit ton of cool plants and make

1546
01:40:04,039 --> 01:40:08,760
good art, and you know they're
fucking yeah, like my friend Rosendo and

1547
01:40:09,439 --> 01:40:13,239
you know, he's a tattooist who's
like really into just growing cacti and ye

1548
01:40:13,560 --> 01:40:16,680
making fucking awesome arts. So it's
it's cool to see this, you know.

1549
01:40:16,800 --> 01:40:19,399
I wish, you know, I
was, I wish I would see

1550
01:40:19,399 --> 01:40:23,079
this in other countries I went to, Like when I remember when I went

1551
01:40:23,119 --> 01:40:28,199
to Brazil, there was like no
culture that was non academic for plants.

1552
01:40:28,680 --> 01:40:30,239
I blew my mind. Like I
remember we went in like a bookstore where

1553
01:40:30,239 --> 01:40:34,159
like do you have any field guides
of Native Like no, no, And

1554
01:40:34,479 --> 01:40:39,560
everybody we had talked to about plants
there was mostly associated with the university and

1555
01:40:39,640 --> 01:40:41,720
was studying it. It was like, damn, there's like this is just

1556
01:40:41,760 --> 01:40:45,720
off the map. And in terms
of like the any pop culture or subculture,

1557
01:40:45,760 --> 01:40:50,640
you know. So it's cool.
I think what's happening here is it

1558
01:40:50,720 --> 01:40:56,359
makes me really hopeful. I like
seeing people stoked on this stuff so well.

1559
01:40:56,600 --> 01:40:59,119
I mean there's definitely tons of stoke
on it. I you know,

1560
01:40:59,479 --> 01:41:02,000
all the all the people that I
talked to on a weekly basis that are

1561
01:41:02,039 --> 01:41:09,520
cactus people. We're all like the
conversations are you know all you made I

1562
01:41:09,560 --> 01:41:13,199
finally made seat on this. So
these plants, the blooms finally synced up,

1563
01:41:13,319 --> 01:41:15,920
or these seedlings germinated, or I
had this issue and dealt with it

1564
01:41:15,920 --> 01:41:19,199
this way. Have you had that? Like it's just like it also is

1565
01:41:19,239 --> 01:41:23,920
like you know, uh, our
grandparents just to do like crossword puzzles to

1566
01:41:24,000 --> 01:41:26,800
keep their minds occupied, like this
is just so much better, you know

1567
01:41:26,800 --> 01:41:30,279
what I mean, it's so much
more fascinating. It truly is like I

1568
01:41:30,319 --> 01:41:34,640
get excited as fuck about this ship, you know, And so yeah,

1569
01:41:34,720 --> 01:41:39,520
the dopamine response is definitely there.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's

1570
01:41:39,720 --> 01:41:43,920
fucking great to see and I think
Ben, You're you're doing a lot to

1571
01:41:44,000 --> 01:41:46,920
spread it, which is fucking phenomenal. Man. So I really appreciate you

1572
01:41:46,960 --> 01:41:49,840
for that, and thank you for
being down to come on this podcast.

1573
01:41:50,079 --> 01:41:55,239
Sorry, it we rescheduled so many
times like that. You know, today

1574
01:41:55,359 --> 01:41:59,199
was today was on me, So
no worries. Did it worked out perfectly?

1575
01:41:59,479 --> 01:42:01,199
Yeah? Man? Well okay,
so what you got any trips coming

1576
01:42:01,279 --> 01:42:04,319
up? And you want to talk
about your YouTube channel? You're in inter

1577
01:42:04,520 --> 01:42:08,239
gram and all that there, what
you know, I mean, you know,

1578
01:42:08,479 --> 01:42:11,600
uh, I'm gonna well, you
and I are going to be in

1579
01:42:11,960 --> 01:42:15,279
what is that May eleventh, We're
gonna be in Austin doing a little thing

1580
01:42:15,319 --> 01:42:18,399
there, so, uh is the
eleven? Yeah? I forgot okay,

1581
01:42:18,439 --> 01:42:21,319
yeah, May, Yeah, I
forgot what day that was. And then

1582
01:42:21,439 --> 01:42:25,359
I don't know when you're gonna get
this up, but uh, April twenty

1583
01:42:25,439 --> 01:42:29,279
first here in LA from ten to
three. I'm gonna be at the Moca

1584
01:42:29,960 --> 01:42:33,359
in downtown LA, the Geffen.
He's doing a plant sale at a museum.

1585
01:42:34,439 --> 01:42:40,119
Pretty cool. Oh sick at our
museum. That's that's contemporary our museum

1586
01:42:40,239 --> 01:42:44,800
with Yeah, oh shit cool.
Those are my only two events. And

1587
01:42:44,800 --> 01:42:46,239
then aside from that, you know, it's cactus Quest on YouTube, cactus

1588
01:42:46,279 --> 01:42:49,680
Quests on Instagram. Come say what's
up? Your merch is nice too?

1589
01:42:49,880 --> 01:42:53,920
You got that Master's a time that
Kopia Poe is shut? You got the

1590
01:42:53,920 --> 01:42:59,439
limestone shirt. We gotta, we
gotta, we gotta cook one up?

1591
01:43:00,079 --> 01:43:01,479
What was what is? What's your
merch store? Is that just thought?

1592
01:43:01,560 --> 01:43:04,800
Is it on bonfire or what's it
through? Yeah, it's all on Bonfire.

1593
01:43:05,920 --> 01:43:11,119
I do have cactus quest dot com
as well, which you're gonna be

1594
01:43:11,119 --> 01:43:14,800
honest with you, it's Instagram has
made me lazy. It's just so easy

1595
01:43:14,800 --> 01:43:17,680
to just post something to my story
and you know, huck it that way

1596
01:43:17,720 --> 01:43:21,279
as opposed to like uploading it and
going back. But I do have some

1597
01:43:21,399 --> 01:43:25,479
shirts on there, you know,
shirts that I have made, uh,

1598
01:43:26,039 --> 01:43:28,479
and I'll be putting more things on
there throughout the year. You know,

1599
01:43:29,159 --> 01:43:32,399
I intend this year to start actually
doing pottery drops on the website eventually,

1600
01:43:32,439 --> 01:43:34,920
because that's the number one thing that
people are always asking, how do I

1601
01:43:34,960 --> 01:43:40,199
bout your pots? I'm like,
you just started the process by asking me

1602
01:43:40,359 --> 01:43:42,760
if you ever want to trade a
piece of art for a pot too,

1603
01:43:42,800 --> 01:43:45,119
I'd like to have one of yours. That would be nice. Yeah.

1604
01:43:45,199 --> 01:43:48,960
Absolutely, what do you draw it
to? Like? Who does the animations

1605
01:43:49,000 --> 01:43:53,399
for your videos and shit? Like
that little thing that you got, that

1606
01:43:53,520 --> 01:43:57,439
intro animation was done by a dear
friend of mine, your own, who

1607
01:43:57,560 --> 01:44:01,239
is a who's an artist. Uh. He just changed his Instagram, so

1608
01:44:02,199 --> 01:44:04,560
I don't know. I don't know
how to shout him out. I forget

1609
01:44:04,560 --> 01:44:06,960
what it is now. He recently
just changed it, but he's uh.

1610
01:44:08,079 --> 01:44:12,159
I think he's got a gallery open
right now in New York, just to

1611
01:44:12,399 --> 01:44:15,479
you know, just a good friend
of mine I've known for a long long

1612
01:44:15,520 --> 01:44:17,960
time who did that for me?
But yeah, I do draw. I've

1613
01:44:18,000 --> 01:44:20,960
done a couple of the designs.
Uh. I've drawn a couple of designs

1614
01:44:21,000 --> 01:44:26,119
myself and then had friends help me
bring some of the other designs to life.

1615
01:44:26,199 --> 01:44:29,079
You know. Yeah, it's got
it's got a specific style. Man,

1616
01:44:29,119 --> 01:44:30,680
it's really nice. So yeah,
I love all your stuff. So

1617
01:44:31,680 --> 01:44:34,600
there's two way Street man. Thank
you, right, I mean, well,

1618
01:44:34,640 --> 01:44:38,479
thanks for being down to do this. I appreciate it. And everybody

1619
01:44:38,479 --> 01:44:39,960
else have a grocery day. Go
fuckers. Somebody